On Wisdom

Episode 5: The Foolish Sage (with Eranda Jayawickreme)

June 24th, 2018  |  52 mins 50 secs

actor-observer bias, aristotle, culture, person-situation, personality, philosophy, psychology, skinner, social psychology, stanford prison experiment, the big 5, virtues, whole trait theory, wisdom, zimbardo

Do 'wise people' even exist? Do we have 'wise characters' or is our behaviour more influenced by 'wise situations'? And if so, what kinds of situations best support wise behaviour? Eranda Jayawickreme joins Igor and Charles to discuss the classic battle royale of the person-situation debate, whole trait theory and the ever-controversial Stanford Prison experiment. Igor outlines the actor-observer bias and suggests that westerners should be more sympathetic to grumpy waitstaff, Eranda considers the motivations behind blaming bad apples vs bad barrels and the implications for the justice system, and Charles learns that overestimating the robustness of his own virtue can lead to all manner of perilous situations. Welcome to Episode 5.