Wise Judgment Consortium
Redefining decision-making beyond Western-centric models
Our Mission
The Wise Judgment Consortium is dedicated to pioneering a new understanding of how diverse cultures and contexts influence wise decision-making. We’re challenging Western-centric models and exploring how diverse societies navigate complex choices. By integrating insights from psychology, natural language processing, computational modeling, and cross-cultural research, we aim to build a more inclusive and globally relevant model of wisdom in decision-making.
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News and Events
Stay updated on new developments, publications and other news related to the project.
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WaC Research Featured in Süddeutsche Zeitung!
Wisdom and Culture Lab research was recently featured in Süddeutsche Zeitung, highlighting international findings showing that, from villages in Ecuador to government offices in Berlin, people facing tough decisions prefer to trust their inner voice—challenging the notion that this tendency is unique to the West.
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WaC Research Featured in Haaretz!
Wisdom and Culture lab research featured in a recent article in Haaretz on new cross-cultural research revealing that, across both traditional and collectivist societies as well as modern and individualistic ones, people tend to prefer trusting their own judgment over following others’ advice.
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Explore the Wisdom and Culture Lab’s Exhibition on Google Arts & Culture
The Wisdom and Culture Lab at the University of Waterloo is now featured on Google Arts & Culture! Discover how our exhibition explores the psychological roots of wisdom and the dynamics of cultural change. Also, check below to see some parts of the exhibition..
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WJC Welcomes Two Summer Research Scientists for Project 1A
We are pleased to welcome two talented researchers who have joined the Wise Judgment Consortium for the summer to support data analysis for Project 1A. Will M. Jettinghoff is a PhD student in Social and Personality Psychology at the University of British Columbia, co-advised by Drs. Kristin Laurin and Azim Shariff. His research explores motivated…
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WJC Welcomes Two New Postdoctoral Fellows
We are excited to announce that two outstanding postdoctoral researchers will be joining the Wise Judgment Consortium this fall. Yisheng Li will join us in September as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Natural Language Processing. He is currently completing his PhD at Toronto Metropolitan University. Yisheng’s research focuses on computational social science, particularly the spread and…
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New Publication in European Review of Social Psychology
A study led by Igor Grossmann and colleagues highlights that core aspects of wisdom—such as intellectual humility, open-mindedness, and perspective-taking—change over time in response to life experiences. Reviewing dominant theories and empirical practices, the authors emphasize the need for social psychology to better account for the dynamic and temporal nature of wisdom and related traits.…