The Wisdom Factor Paperback

In essence, Lattal and Zuluaga pose the question How can I, one person, make a difference for the better in this world? They explore this question through the lens of behavioral science and build their case by addressing some of the biggest societal challenges facing the Western World today. You will come away from reading this book understanding what it means to be a positive change agent and how to act accordingly in tune with your personal values. It will also help you understand why others behave the way they do. That is perhaps equally as important: if we want to build a society in tune with our values, we need to look beyond the walls of our echo chambers.

Sigurdur Oli Sigurdsson, PhD. Manager of the Quality Board for Higher Education in Iceland

The Wisdom Factor is a wise telling of over a century of psychological science and practice that has grappled with the question of what makes us human. More specifically, it offers an accessible and practical roadmap to make us better humans. In this book, the reader will find valuable tools to chart a course to a greater understanding of ourselves, our environment, and each other.

Much has been written about wisdom down through the ages. We've been informed about what it is, what it isn't, who has it, and who doesn't. But very little has been written about how to attain it other than taking many trips around the sun or apprenticing at the feet of a master. This lovely book fills in the gap by explaining how it can be attained simply by turning the knobs and the dials of our own behavior. Furthermore, the many recommendations available herein spring not from the creative imaginations of the authors but from their scrutinous reading and careful distillation of countless studies from behavioral science. Purchasing the book will involve money wisely spent.

This book is timely as it helps us to examine the issues we face in the world from an objective vantage point. Wisdom can light our paths through clarity of thought and influence our actions as we navigate our way through this increasingly volatile, uncertain ,complex and ambiguous world we live in. In a way, it puts the power back in our hands and gives us hope that each one of us has a part to play in shaping our future.

This is a sophisticated, scholarly, and indeed wise book about gaining wisdom--individual and collective--through the application of behavior science. As such, it is far, far more than a "self-help" book. Its scope and depth as well as its science-based approach make the book uniquely valuable."

The authors offer a wide-ranging, guided tour through quotations and comments by a large and diverse roster of prominent figures, as well as by dozens of prominent behavioral scientists and psychologists to address such behavior-related concepts as motivation, learning, beliefs, heuristics, compassion, words and language, knowledge, reciprocity, emotions, self-control, experience, collaboration, competency, thinking skills, problem-solving, flexibility, objectivity, values, goals, and of course, wisdom. The authors’ behaviorally informed values and ethics glisten throughout their science-based behaviorally informed guidance.

We all want to act wisely and kind, but too often the person who “shows up” in our actions harms others. Lattal and Zuluaga describe a life-long journey by which each of us can contribute to a better, more just world. A continual process of self-knowledge and learning, the journey involves analyzing the environmental conditions maintaining our current behavior, making our values concrete, changing our environment to support behaviors consistent with our values, observing and measuring if what we do matches our good intentions, and celebrating our accomplishments and progress. If B. F. Skinner and Ben Franklin collaborated on a plan for self-improvement, it might read a lot like The Wisdom Factor.

The Wisdom Factor is a powerful book. Given the world in which we live now, with heightened sensitivity to diversity and inclusion, political divide, a pandemic, and climate control disrupting our environment, each of us can benefit from increasing our wise actions. The Wisdom Factor not only gives us the tools with which to do that, but also clearly lays out the scientific foundation on which those tools are based – the foundation that enables us to understand and alter our own behaviors. The book goes beyond self-improvement, however; it also provides us with ways to help others, most notably our children, navigate and become catalysts for a wiser culture and brighter future.