Character strength · Wisdom
Judgment as a character strength: meaning and examples
The short answer: judgment, also called critical thinking or open-mindedness, is the habit of thinking things through from all sides before making up your mind, and changing your mind when the evidence calls for it. It is one of the 24 character strengths of the VIA classification, in the Wisdom family: the strengths of the mind.
What judgment looks like
People with a lot of judgment tend to:
- look for the other side of an argument, even one they disagree with
- ask "how do we know that?" before accepting a claim
- take their time over big decisions, and make lists of pros and cons
- admit openly when they were wrong
- distrust answers that seem too simple or too convenient
In everyday life
At work, judgment is the person who reads the whole report before reacting to the headline, and who notices the flaw in a plan before it is too late. In the news and on social media, it is the reflex to check the source before sharing.
In personal life, judgment helps with the big choices (a move, a job offer, a large purchase) by slowing things down just enough to see them clearly.
Judgment and the strengths close to it
- Perspective draws on judgment to give advice that sees the bigger picture.
- Prudence is careful about what you do. Judgment is careful about what you believe.
- Fairness uses the same even-handedness when the question is how to treat people.
When judgment is overdone, or underused
Like every strength, judgment works best in the right amount. Overdone, judgment can become overthinking: endless weighing, trouble deciding, or a habit of picking holes that wears others out. Underused, it is easy to jump to conclusions, believe what is convenient, or stick with a view long after it has stopped fitting the facts.
The aim is clear thinking that still leads to a decision.
Is judgment one of your top strengths?
Ask yourself:
- Before you take a side, do you usually look for the best argument on the other side?
- Have you changed your mind on something important because of new evidence?
- Do people bring you their decisions to think through with them?
If you answered yes to most of these, judgment may be one of your signature strengths. The only way to know how it compares with your other 23 is to rank them.
Find your top strengths with the free test
Where this comes from
The 24 character strengths were described by psychologists Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman in Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification (2004). Happy Me's assessment uses public-domain questions from the International Personality Item Pool and is not affiliated with the VIA Institute.