Across cultures, wisdom has been considered one of the most revered human qualities. Although the truly wise may seem few and far between, empirical research examining wisdom suggests that it isn't an exceptional trait possessed by a small handful of bearded philosophers after all – in fact, the latest studies suggest that most of us have the ability to make wise decisions, given the right context.

在各种文化中，智慧都被认为是人类最受尊敬的品质之一。虽然真正智慧的人似乎是少之又少，但关于智慧的实证研究认为，智慧终究不是只有少数留胡子的哲学家才拥有的特殊品质，-- 事实上，最新的研究表明，在适当的情况下，大多数人都能做出明智的决策。

'It appears that experiential, situational, and cultural factors are even more powerful in shaping wisdom than previously imagined,' says Associate Professor Igor Grossmann of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. 'Recent empirical findings from cognitive, developmental, social, and personality psychology cumulatively suggest that people's ability to reason wisely varies dramatically across experiential and situational contexts. Understanding the role of suchcontextual factors offers unique insights into understanding wisdom in daily life, as well as how it can be enhanced and taught.'

加拿大安大略省滑铁卢大学的副教授伊戈尔·格罗斯曼说:“在塑造智慧方面，经验、环境和文化因素似乎比我们之前想象的有更为强大的作用。"最近在认知心理学、发展心理学、社会心理学和人格心理学的经验发现逐渐表明，人们进行明智推理的能力在不同经验和情境背景下存在显著差异。了解这些环境因素的作用，为理解日常生活中的智慧，以及如何加强和传授智慧提供了独特的见解。

It seems that it's not so much that some people simply possess wisdom and others lack it, but that our ability to reason wisely depends on a variety of external factors. 'It is impossible to characterize thought processes attributed to wisdom without considering the role of contextual factors,' explains Grossmann. 'In other words, wisdom is not solely an “inner quality” but rather unfolds as a function of situations people happen to be in. Some situations are more likely to promote wisdom than others.'

似乎，并不是有些人有智慧而有些人没有，而是我们的明智推理能力取决于各种外部因素。“格罗斯曼解释道:“不考虑背景因素的作用，就不可能描述归于智慧的思维过程是什么特点。“换句话说，智慧不仅仅是一种“内在品质”，而是会在人们恰巧处于某种环境时所表现出的一种功能。有些情况比其他情况更有可能促使智慧发挥作用。

Coming up with a definition of wisdom is challenging, but Grossmann and his colleagues have identified four key characteristics as part of a framework of wise reasoning. One is intellectual humility or recognition of the limits of our own knowledge, and another is appreciation of perspectives wider than the issue at hand. Sensitivity to the possibility of change in social relations is also key, along with compromise or integration of different attitudes and beliefs.

想出智慧的定义是具有挑战性的，但格罗斯曼和他的同事们已经确定了形成智慧推理的四个关键特征。一个是智力上的谦逊，也就是承认我们的知识有限性，另一个是理解比眼前问题更广阔的视角。对社会关系中变化的可能性具有敏感度，以及对不同态度和信仰的折中或融合，也都是(进行智慧推理的)关键。

Grossmann and his colleagues have also found that one of the most reliable ways to support wisdom in our own day-to-day decisions is to look at scenarios from a third-party perspective, as though giving advice to a friend. Research suggests that when adopting a first-person viewpoint we focus on 'the focal features of the environment' and when we adopt a third-person, 'observer' viewpoint we reason more broadly and focus more on interpersonal and moral ideals such as justice and impartiality. Looking at problems from this more expansive viewpoint appears to foster cognitive processes related to wise decisions.

格罗斯曼和他的同事们还发现，在我们自己的日常决策中，支持智慧的最可靠的方法之一，是从第三方的视角来审视情况，就像给朋友建议一样。研究表明，当我们采用第一人称观点时，我们会关注“当下情况的主要特征”，而当我们采用第三人称，即“观察者“观点时，我们的推理会更加着眼开阔，更关注人际关系的和道德理想，如正义和公正。从这种更广阔的视角来看待问题，似乎会促进与明智决策相关的认知过程。

What are we to do, then, when confronted with situations like a disagreement with a spouse or negotiating a contract at work, that require us to take a personal stake? Grossmann argues that even when we aren't able to change the situation, we can still evaluate these experiences from different perspectives.

那么，当我们遇到与配偶发生分歧或在工作中谈判合同等需要自行决策的情况，我们该怎么办呢?格罗斯曼认为，即使我们不能改变方式的情况，我们仍然可以从不同的角度评估这些经历。

For example, in one experiment that took place during the peak of a recent economic recession, graduating college seniors were asked to reflect on their job prospects. The students were instructed to imagine their career either 'as if you were a distant observer' or 'before your own eyes as if you were right there'. Participants in the group assigned to the 'distant observer' role displayed more wisdom-related reasoning (intellectual humility and recognition of change) than did participants in the control group.

例如，在最近一次经济衰退高峰期进行的一项实验中，即将毕业的大学毕业生被要求思考他们的就业前景。学生们按照指示去想象他们的职业生涯，要不想象“你是一个远距离的观察者“或者想象”(事情发生)在你眼前，就像你就正涉身其中“。被分配做远距离观察者“角色的参与者比控制组的参与者表现出更多与智慧推理，(如能在智力方面保持谦逊、能识别变化)。

In another study, couples in long-term romantic relationships were instructed to visualize an unresolved relationship conflict either through the eyes of an outsider or from their own perspective. Participants then discussed an incident with their partner for 10 minutes, after which they wrote down their thoughts about it. Couples in the 'other's eyes' condition were significantly more likely to rely on wise reasoning – recognizing others' perspectives and searching for a compromise – compared to the couples in the egocentric condition.

在另一项研究中，保持长期恋爱关系的情侣被要求从局外人的角度或他们自己的角度来想象未解决的关系冲突。然后，参与者与他们的伴侣就这个冲突讨论了10分钟，之后写下自己就这此的想法。结果在“局外人视角“下进行思考的夫妻比自我为中心思考的夫妻更可能依靠明智的推理(来解决问题)能够理解他人的观点并彼此寻求折中。

'Ego-decentering promotes greater focus on others and enables a bigger picture, conceptual view of the experience, affording recognition of intellectual humility and change,' says Grossmann.

格罗斯曼说:“不以自我为中心能让人们更关注他人，使人们能够对那些经历从大处着眼并形成概念性的看法，促使他们意识到自己智力的不足和(情况的)变化。

We might associate wisdom with intelligence or particular personality traits, but research shows only a small positive relationship between wise thinking and crystallized intelligence and the personality traits of openness and agreeableness. 'It is remarkable how much people can vary in their wisdom from one situation to the next, and how much stronger such contextual effects are for understanding the relationship between wise judgment and its social and affective outcomes as compared to the generalized “traits”,' Grossmann explains. 'That is, knowing how wisely a person behaves in a given situation is more informative for understanding their emotions or likelihood to forgive [or] retaliate as compared to knowing whether the person may be wise “in general”.'

我们可能会把智慧与智力或特定的个性特征联系在一起，但研究表明，明智思考和固定智力与“外放型“和“宜人型”的个性特征之间只有很小的正相关性。“值得注意的是，在不同的情境下人们的智慧会有很大的差异;还有，相比这些广义“性格特征在理解明智判断及其社会和情感结果之间的关系方面，这些情境有大得多的作用”，格罗斯曼解释说。“也就是说，相比知道一个人是否'总体上'明智，了解一个人在给定情况下的行为有多明智，对判断他们的情绪或原谅、报复的可能性大小更有帮助。