Self-Reported Wisdom and Happiness: An Empirical Investigation

The upper left quadrant (livability of the environment) represents good living conditions, such as material affluence, schooling, political freedom, and social equality, which raise the chances of people feeling good about their lives The upper right quadrant (life-ability of the person) denotes how well an individual is able to seize opportunities and to cope with the problems of life. Good life-ability gives individuals the possibility to make the best of different circumstances. The bottom left quadrant (utility of life) represents the notion that a good life must serve some higher function, such as ecological preservation, virtue, or cultural development. Gerson (1976, p. 795) referred to this variant as ‘transcendental’ conceptions of quality of life. The combination of life-ability of the person and the utility of life is similar to Ryff’s (1989; Ryff and Keyes 1995) concept of psychological well-being, which consists of environmental mastery, autonomy, self-acceptance, positive relations with others, personal growth, and purpose in life. Finally, the bottom right quadrant (denoted by satisfaction with life) describes the internal appreciation of one’s life. This latter definition is most closely associated to Bentham’s (1789 [1970]) view of happiness as the sum of pleasures minus pains, although we realize that there is a difference between life satisfaction and happiness. If happiness is affected by daily pleasures and pains, it is likely that it is less stable than an overall feeling of satisfaction with life, which is based on comparisons between past aspirations and present achievements (Fisher 1992; George and Bearon 1980).

In this paper, we follow Bentham’s definition of happiness as the affective appreciation of one’s life. We measured happiness with self-reports and asked participants to rate how happy they have felt in the last 3 months and today.

Although wisdom is a complex concept and difficult to define (Sternberg 1990; Sternberg and Jordan 2005), historically it has been considered the pinnacle of human development (Baltes and Staudinger 2000). For example, Kunzmann (2004, p. 504) described wisdom as ‘… a perfect, perhaps utopian, integration of knowledge and character, of mind and virtue.’ Wise people presumably possess many positive qualities, such as a mature and integrated personality, superior judgment skills in difficult life matters, and the ability to cope with the vicissitudes of life (e.g., Ardelt 2004).

Unfortunately, even after three decades of contemporary wisdom research, a generally agreed upon definition of this elusive concept does not exist. Meeks and Jeste (2009) analyzed 10 major definitions and descriptions of wisdom and found that six subcomponents were included in at least three of these definitions: (1) prosocial attitudes/behaviors, (2) social decision making/pragmatic knowledge of life, (3) emotional homeostasis, (4) reflection/self-understanding, (5) value relativism/tolerance and (6) acknowledgement of and dealing with uncertainty/ambiguity. In this study, we define and operationalize wisdom as an integration of cognitive, reflective, and compassionate personality characteristics. Our measure is based on prior research by Clayton and Birren (1980) and further developed by Ardelt (1997, 2003, 2004). This general, yet relatively parsimonious description of wisdom seems to be compatible with most of the definitions found in the ancient and contemporary wisdom literature (Ardelt 2011b; Ardelt and Oh 2010; Manheimer 1992) and is also distinct enough to distinguish a wise person from, for example, an intelligent, creative, or altruistic individual (Ardelt 2004).

It should be noted that this definition of wisdom does not imply that wise individuals will avoid or suppress negative emotions toward themselves or others if they arise. On the contrary, through self-awareness and self-examination (the reflective wisdom dimension) wise persons are able to acknowledge, regulate, and ultimately overcome their negative emotions and projections without adversely affecting their own lives and that of others (Webster 2003). For example, the practice of mindfulness and mindfulness meditation appear to facilitate the acceptance and eventual transcendence of negative emotions and behavior (Barbieri 1997; Farb et al. 2010; Kabat-Zinn 2003; Speca et al. 2000). As defined in the present study, wisdom has a utopian quality, but it should be possible to assess how close people come to this ideal state (Ardelt 2004).

It is not hard to find supporters of the idea that wisdom is important for happiness in the history of philosophy. Thomas Aquinas (1923, p. 3) wrote, ‘Of all human pursuits, that of wisdom is the most perfect, the most sublime, the most profitable, the most delightful.’ The profession of philosophical counseling, which uses philosophical means for treating everyday problems and predicaments, is partly based on this idea. Marinoff (2003) argued that philosophizing about life helps people to develop the practical wisdom that enables them to deal with life more efficiently. His motto is the following quote by Epicure: ‘Vain is the word of the philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man. For just as there is no profit in medicine if it does not expel the diseases of the body, there is no profit in philosophy either if it does not expel the suffering of the mind.’

Still, the idea that wisdom leads to happiness is controversial. We can feel better without growing in wisdom, as exemplified by the use of psychotropic medication and behavioral therapy that employs basic learning mechanisms. Moreover, Amir (2004) stated that studying philosophy sometimes leads to confusion or discouragement and that the search for wisdom through philosophical counseling might contribute to unhappiness. It can be very frustrating to acquire a better understanding of one’s predicament if one does not have the means to resolve it. Hence, wisdom or greater insight might harm happiness.

In philosophy, wisdom is not only seen as a life-ability that might enhance happiness, but as a goal in itself and as such, wisdom might conflict with happiness by, first, increasing one’s insight into life and, second, through the realization that other things might be more important than the pursuit of happiness. To illustrate the first downside of wisdom, Feldman (2008, p. 231) used the example of ‘Timmy’ who is always cheerful with all the happiness neurotransmitters flowing around in his brain. He never thinks about a life goal, however, and when he is prompted to review his life in this light he ‘promptly becomes despondent and would judge his life as a whole to have been worthless’. A grain of wisdom has made Timmy unhappy. This possibility is summed up by the popular expression ‘sadder but wiser’. Happiness appears to profit from embracing (unwise) positive illusions about the relative superiority of ourselves (Headey and Wearing 1992). Without positive illusions, we run an elevated risk for depression. The phenomenon called depressive realism describes the tendency of mildly depressed people to view themselves and the world realistically (Collijn 1991).

Second, if wisdom encourages us to transcend our self-interests, we might choose options in life that are detrimental to happiness. According to Buss (2004), sometimes it is wiser to resist oppression and to do what is right, even if it involves sacrificing our happiness, than to go along with a harmful social system. For example, Mohr (1992) argued that dignity for homosexuals takes preference over their feelings of happiness and that coming out is a form of ‘community duty’ that might help improve the position of homosexuals in the long run. These philosophers deem it wise to sacrifice individual happiness for the sake of the greater good. Yet, paradoxically, the pursuit of altruistic and virtuous goals might ultimately lead to greater and longer lasting happiness than the direct pursuit of sensory pleasures (Ryan and Deci 2001).

Psychologists distinguish between hedonic or subjective well-being, such as happiness, and eudaimonic or psychological well-being, which refers to the actualization of human potentials, such as growth in wisdom (Ryan and Deci 2001; Ryff 1989; Waterman 1993). According to Staudinger and Kunzmann (2005), personal adjustment, described as positive developmental changes that have adaptive value for the individual as well as the community, is likely accompanied by subjective well-being. Adjustment entails ‘that we become self-assured and self-protected, which help us to avert “damage” form our view of the world and ourselves’ (p. 326). Yet, personal growth and wisdom transcend the given societal circumstances and go beyond integration in social structures and the maintenance of subjective well-being. Growth is characterized by ‘increases in virtues such as insight, integrity, self-transcendence, and the striving towards wisdom’ (p. 321). The attainment of wisdom, in turn, requires critical self-examination, flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity, and ‘extraordinary effort and most likely pain’ (p. 326). Moreover, sometimes adverse life circumstances foster the development of wisdom (Ardelt 1998; Ardelt et al. 2010). This does not imply, however, that wisdom is inversely related to happiness, although the path to wisdom might necessitate hard work, self-discipline, and endurance (Pascual-Leone 2000). For example, for Erikson (1982), wisdom is the virtue that results after the resolution of the psychosocial crisis of ego integrity versus despair in old age. Wise people know how to cope with crises and hardships in life and to sustain their emotional well-being even in difficult circumstances (Ardelt 1997, 2005). Also, assuming that a certain degree of personal adjustment is necessary to develop wisdom (Staudinger and Kunzmann 2005), wise persons will have a higher starting point of happiness than individuals who have difficulties adjusting to life.

If it is true, as many wisdom researchers have argued, that wise individuals know “the art of living” or how to live a life that is good for oneself, good for others, and good for the whole society (Baltes and Staudinger 2000; Csikszentmihalyi and Nakamura 2005; Kekes 1995; Kramer 2000; Kupperman 2005; Sternberg 1998), they should also be content and satisfied with a life that is well lived (Ardelt 2000; Bianchi 1994; Clayton 1982; Vaillant 2002). In fact, Csikszentmihalyi and Nakamura (2005) argued that the pursuit and attainment of wisdom might be intrinsically rewarding and joyful due to the transcendence of one’s self-centeredness. Happiness is not a zero sum game, and one of the best ways to become happy appears to be by contributing to the happiness of others (Headey and Wearing 1992).

Wisdom might also be necessary to make happiness sustainable (Bergsma 2000). Kraut (cited in Averill and More 1993) offers the following thought experiment to illustrate this point. Imagine you are still in high school and voted the most popular student by your peers. You are elated because of this well-deserved recognition, but afterwards you discover it was a cruel hoax: in reality you are the laughing stock of the school. The happiness you felt on the evening of the election is not something to think back of with gratitude. We want to be happy, but we need wisdom to shield us against painful illusions. In fact, happiness without wisdom might be short-sighted. In Bright-sided: How the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America, Barbara Ehrenreich (2009) argued that being wiser and more in contact with reality might be hard at times but on average would make everybody happier in the long run.

To our knowledge, only two studies have examined the relation between wisdom and happiness per se, although a number of studies have analyzed the association between wisdom and measures of subjective well-being, such as life satisfaction. The empirical evidence is mixed, with some studies finding a positive association between measures of wisdom and well-being and others failing to do so.

In a sample of 158 Canadian undergraduates, self-transcendent wisdom (Levenson et al. 2005) was positively related to the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky and Lepper 1999), even after controlling for self-actualization (Beaumont 2009). Similarly, in a sample of 177 undergraduate students from the United States, the reflective and compassionate components of Ardelt’s (2003) Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS) correlated directly with the Subjective Happiness Scale and inversely with negative affect, although the cognitive dimension of the 3D-WS was uncorrelated with both scales (Neff et al. 2007).

In addition to happiness, wisdom has been found to be positively associated with measures of subjective well-being. For example, in a sample consisting of Jewish Canadian and Muslim Pakistani children, adolescents, and adults, higher wisdom, assessed by the 3D-WS and the Foundational Value Scale (Jason et al. 2001; Perry et al. 2002), was significantly related to greater life satisfaction (Ferrari et al. 2011). Similarly, in studies of economically diverse community samples of primarily older White adults (M = 64 years) and White and African American older adults (M = 71 years), the 3D-WS was positively correlated with life satisfaction (Le 2011) and general well-being and negatively related to depressive symptoms (Ardelt 2003). In an educational diverse sample of White older women (M = 68 years) and men (M = 70 years), wisdom, measured as a combination of cognitive, reflective, and compassionate personality characteristics from the California Q-Sort and Haan’s (1969) Ego Rating Scale, had a stronger statistical effect on life satisfaction than objective indicators of quality of life, such as physical health, socioeconomic status, financial situation, physical environment, and social involvement (Ardelt 1997).

In a sample of middle-aged (36–59 years; M = 45 years) and older (age >65; M = 70 years) American and Japanese adults, both the reflective and compassionate synthetic wisdom mode and the cognitive analytical wisdom mode were positively associated with life satisfaction (Takahashi and Overton 2002). General wisdom-related knowledge, measured by the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm (e.g., Baltes et al. 1995) was also positively correlated with life satisfaction in a German sample of relatively highly educated younger adults (M = 30 years) and older adults (M = 67 years), whereas personal wisdom, assessed as self-knowledge, growth and self-regulation, interrelating the self, self-relativism, and tolerance of ambiguity, was unrelated to life satisfaction (Mickler and Staudinger 2008). Yet, in a different study by Kunzmann and Baltes (2003) with an educational diverse German sample ranging in age from 15 to 70 years, general wisdom-related knowledge was inversely correlated with both positive/pleasant affect (e.g., exuberant, happy, proud) and negative affect (e.g., angry, afraid, ashamed). Although wise individuals might be more likely to be happy, they might be less likely to be exuberant or proud due to emotion regulation (Webster 2003) and the transcendence of the self (Csikszentmihalyi and Nakamura 2005).

Brugman (2000) who operationalized wisdom as expertise in uncertainty measured by the Epistemic Cognition Questionnaire (ECQ15) also obtained contradictory results. In a sample of highly educated older adults in the Netherlands (M = 74 years), wisdom was unrelated to life satisfaction, but the ECQ15 correlated with life satisfaction in an educational diverse sample of middle-aged (M = 50 years) and older (M = 83 years) Dutch participants (Brugman 2000). Finally, in a sample of college-educated adults around the age of 52, neither practical wisdom (assessed by cognitive, reflective, and mature adjectives from the Adjective Check List) nor transcendent wisdom (ratings of respondents’ examples of their own wisdom) was significantly correlated with life satisfaction or marital satisfaction (Wink and Helson 1997).

It is conceivable that the contradictory empirical findings are due to the different measures of wisdom and subjective well-being as studies vary widely in the operationalization of these elusive constructs. Another possibility is that wisdom is more strongly related to subjective well-being among socially and economically disadvantaged respondents, such as women, minorities, elders, and individuals with a lower educational background, who have fewer resources to find fulfillment, satisfaction, and happiness in the external environment. For example, it is noteworthy that only the two studies with highly educated middle-aged and older adult samples did not find a significant association between measures of wisdom and satisfaction (Brugman 2000; Wink and Helson 1997). Wisdom might be unrelated to well-being and happiness if external life qualities, life chances, and life results are optimal (see Table 1), but it might be necessary for greater well-being and happiness if external life qualities are problematic and economic and physical resources are not available or are declining (Ardelt 2000; Clayton 1982; Kekes 1995). It is easier to be happy when everything goes well than when life is hard. In difficult circumstances, better coping skills and wisdom might be needed to remain happy.

The present study seeks to explore the association between wisdom and feelings of hedonic happiness, using a Dutch internet sample, by testing the following hypotheses.

Wise people know how to cope with the pains in life and enjoy its pleasures, although they might be more aware of life’s negative aspects through their ability to see through illusions (McKee and Barber 1999; Staudinger et al. 2005). Yet, it was not expected that high wisdom scorers were less happy than those with lower wisdom scores. To test for this possibility, we analyzed whether the association between wisdom and happiness was curvilinear.