Psychological research on wisdom has flourished in the last 30 years, much of it investigating laypeople’s implicit theories of wisdom. In three studies, we took an exemplar and prototype approach to implicit wisdom theories by asking participants to nominate one or more cultural-historical figures of wisdom. Study 1 revealed that individuals draw from a wide range of wisdom exemplars, with substantial agreement on the most iconic figures. In Study 2, multidimensional scaling analysis of exemplars revealed practical, philosophical, and benevolent prototypes; follow-up analyses indicated that prototypes differed in familiarity, likability, and perceived wisdom. Study 3 showed that individuals nominated exemplars from the practical prototype more frequently than from the philosophical and benevolent prototypes and that prototype nomination depended in part on nominator characteristics. These studies suggest that exemplar- and prototype-based implicit wisdom theories are consistent with explicit psychological theories of wisdom.

Few empirical studies have examined phronesis and sophia (Hebrew, hochma) within particular religious and cultural groups. We interviewed 50 Muslims from Pakistan and 76 Jews from Canada about people and historical figures they consider wise. Also, the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale measured phronesis, the Foundational Values Scale measured sophia/hochma and the Life Satisfication Scale measured of quality of life. ANCOVAS found Jewish participants scored higher on phronesis, whereas Muslim participants scored higher on sophia/hochma. Children had less phronesis than adolescents or adults, whereas adults had more sophia/hochma than did children and adolescents. All participants were more likely to nominate men as wise.

How do different forms of education contribute to value preferences? Clearly, informal education through personal experiences that shape one’s sense of identity and frame cultural expectations and opportunities (as indexed by culture, gender and age-cohort), non-formal education through religious traditions and formal state-mandated education all contribute to value preferences in culturally-specific ways. However, wisdom should allow people to coordinate culturally-specific education in ways that promote prosocial values. Our study considered the relative strength of four value-orientations from Schwartz’s Personal Values Questionnaire and of 15 core virtues among 189 participants from Canada and South Korea; half were older and half younger adults. 101 were emerging adults (aged 18–25) and 88 were retired older adults (aged 60–80). Multivariate regression analyses show that, although all three forms of education influenced value orientation in culture-specific ways in both Canada and South Korea, formal education was critical to cultivating the wisdom needed to coordinate and adjudicate between different values so as to live well.