“Gratitude Is With Me All the Time”: How Gratitude Relates to Wisdom

OBJECTIVES. This study investigated the relationship of gratitude to wisdom. Both constructs are conceptually related to self-reflectivity, but they differ in their emphasis on extrapersonal resources. Previous wisdom research has focused mainly on intrapersonal capacities. METHOD. In Study 1, 47 wisdom nominees and 47 control participants were interviewed about their most difficult and best life event and filled out a questionnaire on sources of gratitude. Study 2 was a quantitative study (N = 443) of the relationship between a wisdom scale and scale measures and individual sources of gratitude. RESULTS. Significantly more wisdom nominees expressed feelings of gratitude spontaneously in their interview. Wisdom nominees reported gratitude for their life in general, religion, and partner more often than control participants. In Study 2, wisdom was related to all gratitude scales and to similar sources of gratitude as in Study 1. Both studies found gender differences in gratitude but not wisdom. DISCUSSION. Two important implications of these findings are that wisdom entails an appreciation of life and its experiences, especially the growth opportunities that may result from negative events, and that there may be substantial differences between male and female pathways to wisdom.