Jeste and his colleagues created the San Diego Wisdom Scale which identifies wisdom as having a variety of components including compassion, empathy, self-reflection, decisiveness, the ability to give good advice to others, the ability to control your emotions and the acceptance of uncertainty and diversity of perspectives.
“Our study shows that wisdom and loneliness did not seem to coexist. In other words, wiser people don't feel lonely and vice versa,” Jeste said. “Obviously, this doesn't prove that increasing wisdom will reduce loneliness, but it certainly points in that direction… It is logical to expect that wisdom will counter loneliness.”
Of course, not everyone in their mid-50s or late-80s will get lonely, Jeste noted. But he and his colleague Dr. Ellen Lee, a geriatric neuropsychiatrist and one of the study’s authors, offered thoughts on why loneliness may peak at those ages.
The mid-50s is a period of midlife crisis, Jeste explained. Also, during that time of life, women experience menopause and men experience changes associated with andropause. Physical illnesses start to surface, too.
