Wisdom: Cultural and Cross-Cultural Understanding with a Systematic Review of Empirical Studies

The history of wisdom starts with human civilization. However, scientific exploration to understand its nature is hardly 50 years old. Theoretical understanding grasped through ancient literature and historical account suggest cultural diversity in the conception of wisdom. This study tried to overview the wisdom concept from different cultural perspectives. Two databases (APA PsycArticles® and PubMed) were explored for English journal articles with an implicit (or mix of implicit and explicit) method to understand the concept of wisdom. A total of 3828 articles were screened, and nine were selected for the final review. Empirical studies exploring wisdom conception mainly represented North American, European and Asian perspectives. Overall, it was found that very few studies have explored cultural conception and cross-cultural understanding of wisdom empirically. Empirical explorations are in their initial stage. Findings suggest there is an overlap in wisdom conception from one culture to another, and cultural uniqueness lies in prioritizing some features of wisdom over others.