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Maybe Supreme Court justices, United Nations ambassadors, presidential envoys to troubled parts of the globe and divorce mediators should all be at least 60 years old.
This, let me hastily note, is my own hypothesis after wading into a provocative new study in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Its lead author, Igor Grossmann, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, is far too cautious a scientist to make such sweeping suggestions. But look at what he and his colleagues have discovered.
Take a handful of (fake) newspaper stories about social group conflict — immigration quarrels in Tajikistan, ethnic tensions in Africa, that sort of thing. Ask about 250 people of various ages to read them and talk about what might happen next and why. Record and transcribe their responses, and score them on six dimensions of wisdom as the psychological literature commonly defines it.
. . .
And guess what? “Folk psychology, what laypeople believe, is indeed correct — older people have wiser abilities to resolve conflicts,” Mr. Grossmann summarized. The differences were significant, even when the investigators controlled for education level and socioeconomic status. The average age of those who ranked in the wisest 20 percent: nearly 65. Average age of those in the less-wise 80 percent: about 45.
The psychologists tried it again with (fake) advice columns, dealing with family and marital conflicts. Same result: older equaled wiser.
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