A person’s ability to reason wisely about a challenging situation may improve when they also experience diverse yet balanced emotions, say researchers in the Department of Psychology.
The finding clarifies millennia of philosophical and psychological thinking that debates how wisdom is related to the effective management of emotionally charged experiences.
Wise
reasoning
does
not
necessarily
require
uniform
emotional
control
or
suppression,
says
Igor
Grossmann,
professor
of
psychology
at
Waterloo
and
lead
author
of
the
new
study.
Instead,
wise
reasoning
can
also
benefit
from
a
rich
and
balanced
emotional
life.
Characteristics
of
wise
reasoning
include
a
sense
of
humility,
recognition
of
a
world
in
flux,
recognition
of
diverse
perspectives
on
an
issue
and
an
openness
to
integrate
them
and
find
compromise.
“With
our
new
study,
we
wanted
to
test
how
the
presence
and
balance
of
multiple
emotions
at
the
same
time
influence
one’s
ability
for
wise
reasoning,”
said
Grossmann.
To
provide
a
richer
understanding
of
the
relationship
between
wisdom
and
emotion,
Grossmann
and
co-authors
Harrison
Oaks,
a
PhD
candidate
in
psychology
at
Waterloo,
and
Henri
C.
Santos,
a
recent
Waterloo
graduate,
expanded
their
wisdom
research
beyond
isolated
emotions.
The
researchers
focused
on
emodiversity
—the
ability
to
experience
multiple
yet
evenly
balanced
emotions.
They
point
out
that
past
research
indicated
that
emodiversity
could
reduce
clinical
psychopathology
symptoms
by
preventing
any
one
emotion
from
dominating
a
person’s
experience.
“The
ability
to
recognize
the
diversity
in
one’s
emotional
experience
may
not
only
promote
physical
and
mental
health,
but
also
afford
wiser
reasoning,”
said
Grossmann.
“Further,
this
study
identifies
several
ways
to
boost
wise
reasoning
when
managing
personal
emotional
experiences.”
The
researchers
conducted
six
studies
employing
a
wide
range
of
methods
that
examined
emotion-focused
reflections
by
individuals
nominated
for
their
wisdom.
The
tests
included
manipulated
wise
reasoning,
daily
emotional
challenges
in
a
broader
population,
personal
reflections
on
interpersonal
conflicts,
and
wise
reasoning
about
geopolitical
challenges.
Uncovering the complex relationship between wise reasoning and emotion is ongoing, with future work unpacking situational factors of emodiversity and their effects in wise reasoning.
The study, Wise Reasoning Benefits from Emodiversity, Irrespective of Emotional Intensity, is published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
This story is based on a University of Waterloo media release.