Implementation

Methodological Innovation

Despite growing interest in evidence-based wisdom research, virtually all of it relies on dubious self-report. While still quite valuable, this cannot isolate self-awareness from self-illusion. Nor does it protect from faking or gaming the system. A good example of these vulnerabilities is Monika Ardelt’s 39-question Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS) – try it to see how easily one can appear wise (simply selecting the bottom answer (5) on each question gets you a score of 4.1 or “relatively high wisdom”).

This is why Sophiometrics relies on behavioral, timed, balancing (trade-off) tasks with non-obvious metrics. Behavioral assessment measures what someone does, not what they think they do. Time restriction elicits more authentic, reflexive behavior. Balancing tasks (a trade-off between goals) avoids gaming the system as well as requiring multiple perspectives. Non-obvious metrics makes it hard to guess what to fake.

If you’re curious what this looks like, try a demonstration assessment. This won’t tell you how wise you are, but will give a taste of our approach.

The MetaKnowledge Index™ (MKI)

Using the methodological strategies outlined above, Sophiometrics presents ability tests then (using proprietary design and analytic techniques) isolates an indicator of metacognition of knowledge limitations we call the MetaKnowledge Index (MKI). This provides a quantification of self-awareness of ability: how well do you know the difference between what you know and what you don’t know?

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” – Confucius

Our research has shown this index to reveal crucial internal processing skills that predict successful application of knowledge regardless of knowledge level, effectively an independent dimension of ability that overlaps with personality. This unique index predicts a cluster of traits described here, a broad portrait indicative of wise self-awareness.