Wisdom and Social Intelligence
There can be no doubt that wisdom and social intelligence are at the crux of our success in life. As humans, these qualities allow us to align ourselves with others, stand up for what we believe is right, and learn from others who have gone before us. Yet when it comes to understanding how important these virtues are for our quality of life, it becomes difficult to speak on behalf of them due to their inherent complexity. However, with a recent study on people's attitudes about wisdom and social intelligence conducted by the Department of Psychology at UCLA releasing this week, there is now scientific evidence for how important these qualities really are in shaping human society as a whole.
In their study, the UCLA psychologists sought to discover what people's attitudes were about wisdom and social intelligence. The two questions they posed to individuals were whether they think wise people make better decisions than unwise people, and whether they believe social intelligence is important for success in life. In order to find out, the researchers gathered data from a group of 557 participants aged 18-75 years old that had already completed a personality test to measure the subjects' level of wisdom and social intelligence through the Self-Assessment Manikin Form (SAMF) that is known as an "overall personality questionnaire". As a result, the team discovered that 42% of people believe that wise people make better decisions than unwise people, and 39% believe social intelligence is important for successful life. The results also showed that the most participants, 30%, felt wise people were more likely to make a great doctor or lawyer than unwise ones.
While these results were statistically valid and significant at p<0.05, since there was no control factor in this study, the researchers should take note of the fact that some of the subjects may have had higher levels of wisdom or social intelligence than others. In other words, since the SAMF measures these individual traits in a continuous scale, it may not be possible to make generalizations about people's attitudes about wisdom and social intelligence from this study. However, the researchers believe that the results were still valuable because they provided insight into public perceptions of wisdom and social intelligence that until now have remained just that – perceptions.
Furthermore, while these attitudes may seem obvious to some people who spend more time studying the two qualities than others, this information is just as important for others who do not spend nearly as much time thinking about them. Such information may open up new doors of wisdom and social intelligence for individuals who are more inclined to thinking about other subjects in their free time.
The relevance of wisdom and social intelligence for our quality of life, according to the researchers, is not just about how these qualities will affect the decisions we make in life, but how they affect our everyday lives. For example, it was discovered that people who believed wisdom was important more often shopped for better quality goods than those who did not believe in such qualities. Moreover, they also visited more medical clinics and used healthcare services as a result. It was also discovered that people who believed wise people were more likely to be successful at work or school as a result of their higher level of social intelligence.
In terms of the results, all five hypotheses were supported. Those who held positive attitudes towards wisdom and social intelligence were more likely to use better quality healthcare services. Holding positive attitudes towards wisdom was also related to shopping for higher quality goods and visiting medical clinics more often.
The researchers hope that after their study has been published in a scientific journal, people will have a stronger understanding that being wise and socially intelligent is an important part of how they live their lives. Given the complexity surrounding wisdom and social intelligence, it is impossible for scientists to pinpoint one answer as being correct for everyone. The results of the study show that it is possible for people to have varying opinions about wisdom and social intelligence, just as it is possible for those opinions to be positive or negative.
However, what the researchers do believe is that their study shows that there is a crowd of people out there who believe that wisdom and social intelligence are important parts of daily life. Such a belief is not only good for individuals, but may also lead to positive change in how our society operates as a whole. Being wise may just save your life one day.
While these findings are old news, I think they are still valid because we tend not to pay attention to these things during our busy lives. While I still think that there is substantial research into the effects of wisdom and social intelligence on our lives, what I find most interesting is that there are tangible results for individuals to act upon. As a result, I would like to find more articles about studies conducted on wise people in society. Perhaps the publication of such studies will open up a new avenue for how we approach various situations in life, such as making decisions for work and school.
I'd also like to see more articles about wise people in history who may have had some positive effect on society as a whole. While there are many great aspects of wisdom and social intelligence that we can learn from, it is important to remember that the best thing we can do is try to apply the bits of wisdom and social intelligence we have learned ourselves. If more people try hard enough at life, our society could be a better place than it currently is.
Learn more: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/uoc--wos072814.php
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Conclusion:
It was discovered that people who held positive attitudes towards wisdom and social intelligence were more likely to use better quality healthcare services, shop for higher quality goods, and visit medical clinics more often. Holding positive attitudes towards wisdom was also related to shopping for higher quality goods and visiting medical clinics more often. The analyses showed that the average amount of money spent on healthcare services by participants with pro-wisdom personality characteristics was about $1,545 U.S., whereas the average amount spent by those with anti-wisdom characteristics was about $1,317 U.S. From this result, we may conclude that attitudes towards wisdom are positively correlated with the amount of money participants spend on medical care.