Older Wisdom

December 15, 2010

With the holiday season comes food, festivities, and family reunions. For some elders that means story time. A new study says they have more street smarts than you may think. The younger generation may not always pay attention when grandma and grandpa talk about how things used to be, but a new University of Florida study confirms the long-held theory that length of years and life experience really can bring wisdom.

Monika Ardelt/UF sociology researcher: “It’s not just decline in old age…there is something positive and the positive thing is that older people can gain wisdom and can learn how to deal with life.”

While wisdom can come with age, there’s no guarantee. Researchers measured wisdom based on a combination of cognitive, compassionate, and reflective attributes. When it came to reflective or the ability to view life from different perspectives, elders scored higher.

Monika Ardelt/UF sociology researcher: “Sometimes you see some very wise young people, wise beyond their years. If you dig deeper, often what happens is those people have experienced traumatic events in their life.”

Researchers say those traumatic events or life experiences lead to increased street smarts in older generation. So remember over the holidays to listen to your elders.