Abstract
Whereas a number of studies have investigated adult laypersons' understanding of the concept of wisdom, children's knowledge about wisdom has not yet been studied. A total of 461 Austrian elementary-school children filled out a questionnaire about wisdom. Results showed an increase in self-reported familiarity with the term “wisdom” from 43.0% in grade 1 to 92.1% in grade 4. Children's open definitions of wisdom as well as their wisdom-typicality judgements of a list of adjectives focused on cognitive aspects, especially fluid intelligence, and social aspects of wisdom, especially friendliness. Aspects involving reflection, such as learning from experience or perspective taking, were seldom mentioned. The frequency with which old age was judged as typical for wisdom increased across grades 1 to 4. Gender differences were mostly found in nominations of wise figures, where boys nominated male figures more often than girls.
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