Wisdom has never been more vital in a world of complexity with social, ethical, and technological challenges—but the scientific measure of it is still in a primitive state. Most of the tools available are self-report-based tools with limitations of social desirability and cultural and linguistic constraints. In order to address these limitations, we developed the Indian Wisdom Scale (IWS), which is a preregistered and performance-based psychometric measure that is culturally neutral and flexible across cultures.
The IWS employs picture-based stimuli crafted to avoid linguistic, gender, or age-related cues, ensuring interpretability for participants aged 12 and above. Participants respond using a structured think-aloud paradigm, generating verbal protocols in their native language. Expert raters then evaluate these responses across five theoretically derived components of wisdom. By combining non-linguistic stimuli with linguistically flexible responses, the IWS minimizes cultural loading while enabling meaningful cross-cultural application.
An a-priori power analysis identified a minimum sample size of 172 participants whom we recruited from India’s heterogeneous population of school students, college students, and working professionals. Structural validity was supported through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Reliability indices indicated strong internal consistency and high inter-rater agreement, while validity testing confirmed expected convergent and discriminant patterns.
Preliminary results demonstrate that the IWS is a reliable and valid performance-based assessment of wisdom. Beyond psychometrics, the tool yields multimodal data (voice, transcripts, eye-tracking, EEG), opening avenues for exploring cognitive-affective processes and contributing to future developments in education, clinical evaluation, leadership training, and even artificial wisdom models.

Authors:
Sweta Kaman, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, India
Ankita Sharma, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, India
Romi Banerjee, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, India

About the Presenter(s)
Sweta Kaman is a PhD scholar at the Center for Brain Science and Applications, IIT Jodhpur. Her interests span cognitive science, psychology, and AI, and she is developing a psychometric tool to measure wisdom.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shweta-k-54b181136/

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