Evidence-based training of wisdom in business and management: Use of scientific insights about malleability of practical wisdom for rigorous interventions

Cultivation of practical wisdom in business depends on understanding of malleability of wisdom-related characteristics. Recent experimental evidence suggests dramatic malleability in core features of wisdom, which has implications for assessment as well as external and personal training. The present chapter aims to provide a systematic review of evidence concerning the malleability of critical features of practical wisdom – intellectual humility, consideration of change, as well as perspective-taking and integration. A particular focus is devoted to the role of situational factors in inhibiting or promoting practical wisdom. Results indicate that social contexts (e.g., being together with friends/work-colleagues) promote more practical wisdom than non-social situations, self-focused contexts inhibit practical wisdom, and contexts promoting ego-decentered mindsets (e.g., self-distancing) sustain practical wisdom in self-focused situations. Within-person (state) differences in wisdom across situations are at least as large if not larger than between-person (trait) differences. Insights about the malleability of practical wisdom also resulted in a novel state-sensitive approach to measure practical wisdom across both state and trait-level, allowing for ecological measurement of meta-cognitive processes in a cost-efficient and reliable fashion. The chapter concludes with speculation about implications for evidence-based intervention programs to foster practical wisdom in people’s lives.