Igor Grossmann
Co-Host of On Wisdom
Igor Grossmann is a world traveller. Born during the downfall of the Soviet Union on a day of October revolution, and growing up in Ukraine and Germany, ever since childhood he has been wondering about how people make sense of complex social challenges. He has studied at the University of Freiburg in Germany and the University of Michigan in the US and is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Waterloo in Canada. His work explores the interplay of sociocultural factors for wisdom in the face of daily stressors using a wide range of methods, including big data analytics, psychophysiology, diary surveys, and behavioural experiments.
Igor Grossmann has hosted 53 Episodes.
-
37: World After Covid series: Wisdom for Positive Consequences (Pt. I) - Sympathy and Compassion, Self-distancing, Perspective-taking, and Learning from pandemics
June 3rd, 2021 | 29 mins 36 secs
acknowledge uncertainty, agency, anand menon, authoritarianism, autobiographical memory, bipartisanship, care for elders, career disruptions, compassion, connectedness, control, coronavirus, covid-19, critical thinking, cultural change, despair, economic hardship, edouard machery, educational inequality, follow rules, forecast, gratitude, hope, improved communication, intellectual humility, intimate relation, irrationality, laura carstensen, loneliness, long-term orientation, mistrust, nature, optimism, patience, perspective-taking, pessimism, political conflict, political cooperation, political engagement, predictions, prosocial behavior, resilience, roxane cohen silver, science interest, self-distancing, shared humanity, social awareness, social inequality, social support, society, solidarity, structural change, sympathy, togetherness, trust, wac2020, wisdom, work-life balance, worldaftercovid
On Wisdom dissects the latest research emerging from the field of wisdom research and discusses what it might mean for each of us and for society in terms of reasoning and living more wisely in the 21st Century.
-
36: World After Covid series: Positive Consequences (Part II) - Political cooperation, Nature, Solidarity, and Prosocial behaviours
April 13th, 2021 | 44 mins
acknowledge uncertainty, agency, authoritarianism, autobiographical memory, barry schwartz, bipartisanship, care for elders, career disruptions, compassion, connectedness, control, coronavirus, covid-19, critical thinking, cultural change, dagomar degroot, despair, economic hardship, educational inequality, follow rules, forecast, gratitude, hope, improved communication, intellectual humility, intimate relation, irrationality, katie mclaughlin, loneliness, long-term orientation, mistrust, nature, optimism, patience, perspective-taking, pessimism, political conflict, political cooperation, political engagement, predictions, prosocial behavior, resilience, science interest, self-distancing, shared humanity, shinobu kitayama, social awareness, social inequality, social support, society, solidarity, structural change, sympathy, togetherness, trust, wac2020, wisdom, work-life balance, worldaftercovid
On Wisdom dissects the latest research emerging from the field of wisdom research and discusses what it might mean for each of us and for society in terms of reasoning and living more wisely in the 21st Century.
-
35: World After Covid series: Positive Consequences (Part I) - Political and structural change, Care for elders, Social connectedness, and Reconsidering habits
February 8th, 2021 | 28 mins 24 secs
acknowledge uncertainty, agency, authoritarianism, autobiographical memory, ayse uskul, bipartisanship, care for elders, career disruptions, compassion, connectedness, control, coronavirus, covid-19, critical thinking, cultural change, despair, economic hardship, educational inequality, follow rules, forecast, gratitude, harry reis, hope, improved communication, intellectual humility, intimate relation, irrationality, james gross, loneliness, long-term orientation, michael ross, mistrust, nature, optimism, patience, perspective-taking, pessimism, political conflict, political cooperation, political engagement, predictions, prosocial behavior, resilience, science interest, self-distancing, shared humanity, social awareness, social inequality, social support, society, solidarity, structural change, sympathy, togetherness, trust, wac2020, wisdom, work-life balance, worldaftercovid
On Wisdom dissects the latest research emerging from the field of wisdom research and discusses what it might mean for each of us and for society in terms of reasoning and living more wisely in the 21st Century.
-
34: World After Covid series: Wisdom for Now (Part II) - What's important, Living in the moment, Social connectedness, and Shared humanity
January 18th, 2021 | 22 mins 33 secs
acknowledge uncertainty, agency, authoritarianism, autobiographical memory, bipartisanship, care for elders, career disruptions, compassion, connectedness, control, coronavirus, covid-19, critical thinking, cultural change, dacher keltner, despair, economic hardship, educational inequality, follow rules, forecast, gratitude, hope, improved communication, intellectual humility, intimate relations, irrationality, loneliness, long-term orientation, michael bond, mistrust, nature, optimism, patience, perspective-taking, pessimism, political conflict, political cooperation, political engagement, predictions, prosocial behavior, resilience, science interest, self-distancing, shared humanity, social awareness, social inequality, social support, society, solidarity, structural change, sympathy, togetherness, trust, wac2020, wendy mendes, wisdom, work-life balance, worldaftercovid, yukiko ushida
On Wisdom dissects the latest research emerging from the field of wisdom research and discusses what it might mean for each of us and for society in terms of reasoning and living more wisely in the 21st Century.
-
33: World After Covid series: Wisdom for Now (Part I)
January 6th, 2021 | 27 mins 18 secs
acknowledge uncertainty, agency, authoritarianism, autobiographical memory, bipartisanship, care for elders, career disruptions, compassion, connectedness, control, coronavirus, covid-19, critical thinking, cultural change, despair, economic hardship, educational inequality, follow rules, forecast, gratitude, hope, improved communication, intellectual humility, intimate relations, irrationality, loneliness, long-term orientation, mistrust, nature, optimism, patience, perspective-taking, pessimism, political conflict, political cooperation, political engagement, predictions, prosocial behavior, resilience, science interest, self-distancing, shared humanity, social awareness, social inequality, social support, society, solidarity, structural change, sympathy, togetherness, trust, wac2020, wisdom, work-life balance, worldaftercovid
On Wisdom features a social and cognitive scientist in Toronto and an educator in London discussing the latest empirical science regarding the nature of wisdom. Igor Grossmann runs the Wisdom & Culture Lab at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Charles Cassidy runs the Evidence-Based Wisdom project in London, UK. The podcast thrives on a diet of freewheeling conversation on wisdom, decision-making, wellbeing, and society and includes regular guests spots with leading behavioral scientists from the field of wisdom research and beyond. Welcome to The On Wisdom Podcast.
-
32: Shifting Gears: Wisdom in the 'World After Covid'
November 30th, 2020 | 2 mins 27 secs
acknowledge uncertainty, agency, authoritarianism, autobiographical memory, bipartisanship, care for elders, career disruptions, compassion, connectedness, control, coronavirus, covid-19, critical thinking, cultural change, despair, economic hardship, educational inequality, follow rules, forecast, gratitude, hope, improved communication, intellectual humility, intimate relations, irrationality, loneliness, long-term orientation, mistrust, nature, optimism, patience, perspective-taking, pessimism, political conflict, political cooperation, political engagement, predictions, prosocial behavior, resilience, science interest, self-distancing, shared humanity, social awareness, social inequality, social support, society, structural change, sympathy, togetherness, trust, wac2020, wisdom, work-life balance, worldaftercovid
After 2 and a half years of podcasting, 30+ episodes, 50,000+ downloads, and one global pandemic, it's time for an exciting announcement from the On Wisdom team...
-
31: The Meaning of Wisdom Before and During the Pandemic (with Ricca Edmondson)
November 10th, 2020 | 44 mins 51 secs
big wisdom, constructivism, covid19, culture, ethnography, funerals, meaning, pandemic, practical wisdom, reflection, social distancing, sociology
Does wisdom reside in particular persons, or is wisdom more about what happens between people? And if wisdom does require a social context, what are the implications of our new social distancing habits since the rise of the pandemic? Ricca Edmondson joins Igor and Charles to discuss novel ethnographic approaches to the study of wisdom, the significance of Irish funeral rituals, new lessons from old Trojan horses, and the value of framing wisdom as a social construction. Originally recorded at the start of the pandemic, Ricca returned for a retrospective at the close of the episode, to share her opinions on the meaning of wisdom in these rapidly changing times, and in our future post-pandemic society. Igor muses about big and small wisdom, and Charles asks Ricca about the world after the pandemic. Welcome to the wisdom and pandemic episode!
-
30: Emotions, Attention, and Decision Making in the Aging Brain (with Mara Mather)
August 16th, 2020 | 44 mins 41 secs
alzheimer’s disease, attention, balloon analogue risk task, culture, emotions, happiness, heiko braak, hyperphosphorylated tau, iowa gambling task, laura carstensen, locus coeruleus, mara mather, meaning, memory, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, purpose, reasoning, social psychology, society, socio-emotional selectivity theory, time horizons, wisdom
Despite the common stereotype of ‘older and crankier,’ psychologists suggest we become more positive as we age. Why? Do our aging brains become worse at detecting threats in the environment? Do we choose to focus on more positive aspects of our experience as we age? And what does the latest scientific research say about one of the major dangers of older age — Alzheimer’s disease? Mara Mather joins Igor and Charles to discuss the neuroscience of emotional aging, the role of the locus coeruleus in memory and attention, emotion-induced blindness, and the parallels between Cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Igor digs into the different roles of culture and the lack of good longitudinal studies of aging, Mara reveals how intense emotions can sharpen some aspects of our memories of an event while blunting others, and Charles learns that he and many others may be on the Alzheimer’s spectrum. Welcome to Episode 30.
-
29: Charting Pandemic Waters: A Common Wisdom Model for Uncertain Times (with Howard Nusbaum)
June 21st, 2020 | 1 hr 8 mins
adversity, alfred binet, artificial intelligence, balance of self- and other-oriented interests, candace vogler, centre for practical wisdom, common wisdom model, cortex-adaptability, dialectal thinking, emotions, epistemic humility, happiness, howard nusbaum, iq, jingle-jangle fallacy, keith stanovich, meaning, metacognition, moral-grounding, nancy snow, perspectival insight, perspectivism, philosophy, propositional logic, psychology, purpose, pursuit of truth, reasoning, shared humanity, social science, social-cognitive processing, toronto wisdom task force, university of chicago, valerie tiberius, value-action gap, values, well being, wisdom, wisdom measurement
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. Welcome to Episode 29.
-
28: Pandemic Happiness (with Sonja Lyubomirsky)
April 23rd, 2020 | 31 mins 55 secs
9-11, barbara fredrickson, coronavirus, counting blessings, covid-19, culture, depression, ed diener, effort, emotions, eudaimonic happiness, face-to-face connection, global pandemic, gratitude, happiness, happiness intervention dosage, happiness intervention fit, hedonic happiness, immunity, indebtedness, life satisfaction, lockdown, meaning, mother teresa, motivation, optimism, personal connection, philanthropy, philosophy, positive emotions, psychology, purpose, reasoning, resilience, social science, sonja lyubomirsky, south korea, well being, wisdom
Is happiness research even relevant in such times of crisis, or is focusing on our happiness simply a luxury we can no longer afford? And, while effective for many people, why does the cultivation of gratitude sometimes result in unexpectedly negative consequences? Sonja Lyubomirsky joins Igor and Charles to discuss the key components of happiness, lessons from 9-11, ‘happiness-intervention fit’, Mother Teresa’s dark side, and the unexpected psychological impact of the global pandemic to date. Igor reflects on life-under-lockdown vs life in the downfall of the Soviet Union, Sonja discusses the subtle art of balancing optimism with positive action, and Charles learns that when it comes to counting one’s blessings, it pays not to count too high.
-
27: The Wisdom of a Modern Elder (with Chip Conley)
April 6th, 2020 | 53 mins 42 secs
abraham maslow, age diversity, ageism, airbnb, baby boomer, brian chesky, burning man project, chip conley, curiosity, emotions, gavin newsom, governor of california, happiness, intergenerational housing, meaning, middlescence, midlife wisdom school, modern elder, modern elder academy, peter drucker, philosophy, psychology, purpose, reasoning, sandwich generation, social science, stanford center on longevity, u-curve of happiness, viktor frankl, well being, wisdom, wisdom @ work: the making of a modern elder
Though there is a lot of talk about diversity in the workplace, “age diversity” is often overlooked. Might there even be an emerging mission-critical role for wise elders in the world’s most cutting-edge tech companies? Hospitality maverick and Airbnb Strategic Advisor Chip Conley joins Igor and Charles to discuss the U-Curve of happiness, the surprises and challenges of mentoring billionaire CEOs and State Governors, the potential of intergenerational housing, the emergence of a new generation of wisdom workers, and his new project to build the world’s first midlife wisdom school - The Modern Elder Academy. Igor seeks new solutions for the stressed 'sandwich generation', Chip highlights the importance of curiosity at work and how mentoring and interning often go hand-in-hand, and Charles picks Chip’s brain on how to make wisdom more hip and sexy. Welcome to Episode 27.
-
26: Wicked Problems (with Judith Glück)
March 5th, 2020 | 59 mins 44 secs
age, culture, doctors, emotional sensitivity, emotions, empathy, exploratory processing, happiness, judith gluck, managing uncertainty & uncontrollability, meaning, more model of life experience, nic weststrate, openness, paul baltes, performance-based measures, philosophy, politics, psychology, purpose, reasoning, redemptive processing, reflectivity, self-report measures, social psychology, society, susan bluck, teachers, wisdom, wisdom measurement
Bad things happen to all of us. But why do some people grow wiser, while others simply grow bitter? What do scientists do to reliably measure wisdom in the laboratory? And might this research suggest solutions to some of the most pressing problems of our time? Igor and Charles welcome one of today's leading wisdom scientists - Judith Glück, who discusses the MORE Model of Life Experience, different ways of reflecting on personal experiences, collaborative doctors, compassionate teachers, and pervasive foolishness across the entire political spectrum. Igor ponders potential paths to wiser politics in the face of the world's uncertainties, Judith reminds us that our choice of confidants is critical if we are to extract wisdom from challenging experiences, and Charles is surprised to learn that neither the left nor the right has a monopoly on championing unwise leaders. Welcome to Episode 26.
-
25: 'This is Basically a Revolution': Self-Knowledge and The Battle for Better Science (with Simine Vazire)
February 12th, 2020 | 59 mins 1 sec
benevolence, culture, data police, emotions, happiness, intellectual humility, kindness, meaning, meta-science, methodological terrorism, open science movement, philosophy, philosophy of science, preprint, psychology, purpose, reasoning, replication crisis, scientific credibility, scientific revolution, self-insight, social psychology, society, transparency, wisdom
Is the “business-as-usual” approach to science in crisis? Does the public have a good grasp of how scientific knowledge is really generated? And might scientists be as much prey to self-serving biases as the rest of us mortals? Simine Vazire joins Igor and Charles to discuss the thorny complexity of seeking reliable knowledge about the world and about ourselves, the perils of being a whistleblower in the competitive world of modern science, and the on-going scientific credibility revolution. We discuss meta-scientists, the Open Science movement, and the power of preprints to bust open the black box of peer review. Igor tries to unpack the dialectic of motives among the ‘data policemen,’ Simine issues a call-to-arms for a grassroots-powered future for the scientific community, and Charles learns that the planet of self-knowledge is in a galaxy still far, far away. Welcome to Episode 25.
-
24: Misbehavioral Economics: Choosing irrationality
January 13th, 2020 | 39 mins
books, cass sunstein, choice architecture, civic law, civic norms, common’s dilemma, cooperation, cultural change, dictator game, economic games, economics, emotions, ethics, experimental philosophy, fairness, formal logic, friedrich von hayek, game theory, happiness, john rawls, keynesian economics, meaning, milton friedman, moral psychology, neoliberalism, nudging, philosophy, prisoner’s dilemma, psycholinguistics, psychology, public policy, purpose, rational choice theory, reason, reasoning, richard thaler, self-interest, sharing, social psychology, social science, taxes, tv sitcoms, utility maximization, well being, wisdom
Are people being reasonable when they act irrationally? Doesn’t rationality and reasonableness mean the same thing? Charles and Igor kick of the new decade by diving into a messy mix of behavioral economics, nudges, moral philosophy and legal studies, to examine what standards guide people’s decisions. Charles asks Igor about core standards that guide people when they try to make a good decision. Igor unpacks how the standard of a rational agent evolved in the 20th century and what implications it has had for modern economics and politics. Charles wonders if there are any reasonable people left on the Clapham omnibus in London. Igor discusses his new work assessing how most people define rationality and reasonableness, showing that irrational behavior may be a consequence of focusing on reasonableness instead. Welcome to Episode 24.
-
23: Antifragility, Gut Feelings, and the Myth of Pure Evil (with Jonathan Haidt)
November 4th, 2019 | 57 mins 38 secs
antifragility, authoritarian conservatives, buddhism, chris martin, culture, dale carnegie, donald trump, edmund burke, emotions, evergreen state college, greg lukianoff, happiness, heraclitus, heterodox academy, jonathan haidt, karen stenner, laissez-faire conservatives, manichaeism, marcus aurelius, meaning, middlebury college, moral foundations theory, more in common, narrowcasting, nassim nicholas taleb, national review magazine, nicholas rosenkranz, philosophy, polarization, psychology, purpose, reasoning, richard schweder, robert putnam, ronald reagan, social psychology, social science, society, status quo conservatives, stoicism, the coddling of the american mind, the great awokening, the happiness hypothesis, the perception gap, the righteous mind, thomas sowell, well being, wisdom
Does that which doesn’t kill you make you weaker? Should we always follow our emotions? Is life a battle between good people and bad people? And critically, what might the adoption of these three popular, but unwise, ideas be doing to a rising generation of young adults? Jonathan Haidt joins Igor and Charles to discuss the three great untruths of modern life, the nature of antifragility, the 'great awokening,' rising violence on US university campuses, and the origin story of the Heterodox Academy. Igor suggests that diversity can help some projects while hindering others, Jon shares his ultimate conflict-resolving ninja skill, and Charles learns that conservative voters come in radically different shapes and sizes. Welcome to Episode 23.
-
22: The Epistemic Tightrope: Walking The Line of Doubt (with Scott Lilienfeld)
October 7th, 2019 | 51 mins 46 secs
10% of your brain, abraham lincoln, bias blind spot, carl sagan, clinical psychology, cognitive biases, confirmation bias, daniel kahneman, elizabeth loftus, emily pronin, emotions, epistemic humility, evidence-based medicine, evidence-based practice, happiness, intellectual humility, linus pauling, lucy, mark leary, meaning, nobel prize, philosophy, psychology, purpose, reasoning, richard nisbett, scarlett johansson, seymour epstein, social science, walter mischel, well being, werewolves, wisdom
Patients always receive treatment in agreement with the best scientific evidence available, right? Well, no. Not really. Clinical practitioners seem to suffer from many of the cognitive biases that affect the rest of us, and treatment decisions are often much less science-based that we might like to think. Scott Lilienfeld joins Igor and Charles to discuss evidence-based practice in psychotherapy, the importance of doubting, clinical psychology’s dirty little secret, Scarlett Johansson’s brain, confirmation bias, how science really works, and why people just can’t let go of the idea that a full moon triggers werewolf-style behaviour. Igor reveals he learnt his English from TV detective ‘Columbo’, Scott discusses the fine art of planting seeds of doubt in conversations, and Charles learn from Abraham Lincoln that intellectual humility can ultimately be a path to earned intellectual confidence. Welcome to Episode 22.