On Wisdom Charles Cassidy and Igor Grossmann

Imagine gathering hard-earned lessons from survivors of human trafficking in Nepal, middle school children in Afghanistan, refugees in Europe, and even a man who has witnessed over 12,000 deaths. Deepak Ramola has been on such a lesson-gathering mission for a while, and he joins Igor and Charles to discuss the life lessons he has collected, who gets to define moral behaviour, and how we might change our culture to encourage more perspective-taking. Igor highlights the challenge of stepping outside ourselves in the heat of the moment, Deepak asks some challenging questions about love, and Charles learns the surprising value of proverbs as tools of reflection.
Special Guest: Deepak Ramola.
Links:
Deepak Ramola's SiteProject FuelWorld Wisdom MapDeepak Ramola | Ted Talk50 Toughest Questions of Life | Deepak Ramola

How do we respond wisely to foolish behaviour in the workplace? Tessa West joins Igor and Charles to talk about the most common types of ‘jerks at work’ - including the bulldozer, the credit stealer, and the gaslighter, discussing what drives such unhelpful behaviour, and how best to deal with it. Igor explores the different ways we can respond to uncertainty in the workplace, Tessa suggests that we’re surprisingly nice to moral violators, and Charles learns the importance of building ‘affect contagion buffers’ into his day! Welcome to Episode 51.
Special Guest: Tessa West.
Links:
Tessa West's homepageTessa West's NYU pageJerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them - Tessa West (2022) | BookStress Contagion: Physiological Covariation Between Mothers and Infants - Waters, West, Mendes (2014)5 Signs You're The Jerk At Work | Huffington Post

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Can insights from moral psychology increase donations to more effective charities? Joshua Greene joins Igor and Charles to discuss ventilator allocation and other pandemic-related trolley problems, deep pragmatism, the dual process theory of moral judgement, and the power of the veil of ignorance. Igor gets excited about the role of metacognition for wisdom, Joshua reveals in what contexts we feel more comfortable pushing a fat man off a bridge, and Charles learns that when it comes to unfamiliar moral problems, we should not expect cognitive miracles! Welcome to Episode 50.
Special Guest: Joshua Greene.
Links:
Giving Multiplier — Give to both your favourite charity and a super-effective charity recommended by experts.Joshua Greene's HomepageMoral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them - Joshua Greene (2014) | BookVeil-of-ignorance reasoning favors the greater good - Karen Huang, Joshua D. Greene, Max Bazerman (2019)The Psychology of (In)Effective Altruism - Lucius Caviola, Stefan Schubert, Joshua D. Greene (2021)Talks at Google | Joshua Greene - Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them | Joshua Green | Talks at GoogleVeil of Ignorance | Ethicsunwrapped

What does goal-setting have to do with wisdom and how do we pick wise goals? Ayelet Fishbach joins Igor and Charles to discuss the dangers of moving too swiftly from planning-mode to action-mode, how to compromise across multiple goals, and why we need to rethink our relationships with vegetables! Igor underscores the importance of thinking of wisdom as a process rather than an outcome, Ayelet encourages us to change our situation rather than ourselves, and Charles learns the benefits of approaching a choice as if you’d make it 100 times. Welcome to Episode 49.
Special Guest: Ayelet Fishback.
Links:
Ayelet Fishbach's Personal WebsiteGet It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation - by Ayelet FishbachBehavioral Science Authors Series - Ayelet FishbachWe’re Good at Motivating Others, but What About Ourselves? | Knowledge at WhartonGood Habits, Bad Habits: A Conversation with Wendy Wood | Behavioral ScientistWisdom is a social-ecological rather than person-centric phenomenon | Science Direct - Grossmann, Dorfman, Oakes (2020)

Is "the spectrum" a more helpful way to think about the world than "categories"? Tom Gilovich joins Igor and Charles to discuss the perils of black-and-white thinking, the evolving data on the hot hand phenomenon, the science of regret, why foxes are wiser than hedgehogs, and the freedom that comes from learning that we are of less interest to other people than we think. Igor considers the limits of psychological nudging in tackling society’s structural problems, Tom shares the perspective that leads him to be so unrelentingly joyful, and Charles learns that even scientists have to work hard to avoid being typecast. Welcome to Episode 48.
Special Guest: Tom Gilovich.
Links:
Tom Gilovich's Page | Cornell UniversityGilovich Judgment and Belief LabThe Wisest One in the Room: How You Can Benefit from Social Psychology's Most Powerful Insights (Tom Gilovich and Lee Ross)How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life - Gilovich The i-Frame and the s-Frame: How Focusing on Individual-Level Solutions Has Led Behavioral Public Policy Astray - Chater, Loewenstein (2022)

(First Broadcast - 21st June 2020)


What is the value of wisdom in the time of the global pandemic? Does the community of behavioural scientists studying wisdom agree on anything about the nature of wisdom? Can we say what we now know about wisdom and, conversely, what do we know we don’t yet know? Howard Nusbaum joins Igor and Charles to discuss the recently assembled Toronto Wisdom Task Force and the resulting Common Wisdom Model, meta-cognition, the thorny issue of moral-grounding, and sage advice regarding how to measure wisdom in the lab. Igor stresses the importance of building solid theoretical foundations for the field in the context of the pandemic, Howard reflects on the viability of evil wisdom, and Charles learns that we had better pay close attention today to the values we program into the decision-making robots of tomorrow.
Special Guest: Howard Nusbaum.
Links:
Original Broadcast: Episode 29 - Charting Pandemic Waters: A Common Wisdom Model for Uncertain Times (with Howard Nusbaum)The Science of Wisdom (AEON)The Science of Wisdom in a Polarized World: Knowns and Unknowns: Psychological Inquiry: Vol 31, No 2A Common Model Is Essential for a Cumulative Science of Wisdom: Psychological Inquiry: Vol 31, No 2University of Chicago Center for Practical Wisdom | Center for Practical Wisdom | The University of ChicagoWisdom in Context - Igor Grossmann, 2017Toronto Wisdom Task Force Meeting 2019 (edited) - YouTubeAI Open Letter - Future of Life Institute