Age and wisdom: ethnic features
Oscar Wilde once said, “Wisdom comes with winters.” (Although everyone translates this aphorism verbatim, most likely, Wilde meant that wisdom comes with gray hair. Or, if you like, with the "winter of life".) Of course, it's nice to think that old age benefits, if not the body, then at least the mind. However, do we really become wiser with age?
There are many ways to define wisdom, the most traditional of which is the ability to resolve conflicts. However, representatives of different cultures have different approaches to this issue. Americans, for example, focus on personality and tend to directly resolve conflicts through persuasion, persuasion or other similar approaches. The Japanese, on the contrary, pay more attention to social contacts and tend to resolve conflicts by indirect methods, implying an avoidance strategy or mediation of third parties.
Researchers from the University of Waterloo, Canada, working under the leadership of Igor Grossmann, analyzed the differences between approaches to conflict resolution and, accordingly, the wisdom of representatives of American and Japanese cultures of different ages.
When planning the experiment, they suggested that the Japanese, who are prepared for life in society and appreciate interpersonal harmony, resolve conflicts better and become wise at an earlier age. Americans, on the other hand, are more likely to get into conflict situations during their lives, which is a kind of training, the result of which is the acquisition of wisdom in old age.
As part of the study, representatives of both cultures, whose ages ranged from 25 to 75 years, were asked to read a newspaper article describing the conflict between the two groups and answer several questions, including: "What do you think will happen later?" and "Why do you think this will happen?" After that, they were asked to read an article about the conflict between individuals, such as siblings, friends or spouses, and answer the same questions.
The researchers assessed to what extent the participants' responses corresponded to six pre-established parameters of the wisdom of conclusions: (1) the ability to take into account the points of view of other people, (2) to recognize the likelihood of a change in the situation, (3) to consider many possibilities, (4) to determine the limits of their own awareness, (5) to attempt to reach a compromise and (6) predict the outcome of the conflict.
As the authors expected, when considering conflicts between groups, young and middle-aged Japanese scored higher on the wisdom scale than their American peers. In relation to interpersonal conflicts, older Japanese also looked wiser than Americans of the same age, but this difference was less pronounced than in younger people.
An interesting fact is that the level of wisdom of Americans increased with age, while this pattern did not apply to the Japanese.
The results obtained indicate that the cultural environment continues to influence the development of personality even in old age. While wisdom comes to Americans at the same time as gray hair, this may not apply to representatives of other cultures.
The study also showed that certain abilities necessary for resolving social conflicts do not deteriorate, but, on the contrary, improve with age. Grossman hopes that the results obtained by his group will serve as an antidote to the negative ageist stereotypes that exist in both Western and East Asian society, generating age discrimination.
Article by Grossmann et al. Aging and Wisdom Culture Matters is published in the journal Psychological Science.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the Association for Psychological Science:
Does wisdom really come with age? It depends on the culture.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru31.08.2012