#emotional-intelligence — Public Fediverse posts

DATE: September 5, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: Massive review confirms the connection between emotional intelligence and human flourishing

URL: https://www.psypost.org/massive-review-confirms-the-connection-between-emotional-intelligence-and-human/

A review of psychological research indicates that emotional intelligence has a robust and reliable connection to human flourishing, predicting success across school, work, and personal health. The findings suggest that people with higher emotional intelligence tend to experience greater well-being, though the strength of this connection depends on how the traits are measured. The research was recently published in the journal PNAS.

For decades, psychologists have debated what makes some people thrive while others struggle. One popular idea is emotional intelligence, a concept that rapidly gained public attention in the 1990s. Broadly speaking, the term refers to how well a person navigates their own feelings and the feelings of others.

Since its introduction, the idea has spawned thousands of academic papers and grown into a multibillion-dollar training industry. Yet, because researchers define and measure this concept in various ways, its exact relationship with life success has remained difficult to synthesize.

Psychologists generally divide emotional intelligence into three categories. The first is an ability-based model. This model treats emotional skills like a cognitive test, assuming there are objectively right and wrong answers when identifying or managing emotions.

The ability model specifically looks at how well people recognize emotions, use them to guide decisions, and regulate them. The second category is a trait-based model, which relies on self-reported personality characteristics. Under this model, researchers ask participants to rate their own adaptability, assertiveness, and impulse control.

A third category, called a mixed model, combines both objective abilities and self-reported traits into a single assessment. Beyond the differing definitions of emotional intelligence, researchers also look at a wide variety of life outcomes. To find out how these different models connect to positive life experiences, researchers Tyler J. Robinson and Ethan Zell from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro analyzed decades of data.

The researchers wanted to see if emotional intelligence consistently relates to human flourishing. Flourishing is a broad psychological term encompassing mental health, physical health, psychological adjustment, and workplace success. To answer this question, Robinson and Zell conducted a second-order meta-analysis.

A standard meta-analysis is a statistical technique that pools the results of many individual studies to find an overall trend. A second-order meta-analysis goes a step further, combining the results of multiple previous meta-analyses. This approach acts as a quantitative summary of previous summaries, providing a broad view of an entire scientific field.

By pooling data from 62 previous meta-analyses, the researchers gathered information from more than 3,000 individual studies. This massive sample included over one million participants, allowing the researchers to look for overarching patterns across different ages and cultures. The data included populations from Western nations, non-Western nations, children, adolescents, and adults.

The researchers found a reliable, positive association between overall emotional intelligence and human flourishing. This positive link appeared across 77 unique life outcomes. The most prominent associations emerged in areas like workplace leadership, job performance, and psychological adjustment.

The data showed that emotional intelligence was linked to better outcomes regardless of the participants’ age group or geographic region. When looking at different categories of life outcomes, the researchers noticed slight variations in the strength of the connection. Emotional intelligence was most strongly related to success in the workplace.

The connection was slightly weaker, though still reliably present, for cognitive abilities and general academic performance. The researchers also found strong associations between emotional intelligence and specific outcomes like lower rates of job burnout, higher subjective well-being, and better romantic relationship satisfaction.

To put these findings into perspective, the researchers compared emotional intelligence to the Big Five personality traits. The Big Five is a well-established psychological framework that measures openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The analysis revealed that emotional intelligence is just as strongly, if not more strongly, associated with human flourishing than any of the Big Five personality traits.

Out of all the specific outcomes analyzed, only one showed a negative relationship with emotional intelligence. That outcome was a form of self-centeredness known as nonpathological narcissism. The researchers noted that individuals with this specific type of narcissism tend to artificially inflate their own scores on self-report questionnaires.

Because they overrate their own emotional abilities, the data showed an inverse relationship between their actual traits and their reported emotional intelligence. More conventional, pathological narcissism was linked to lower emotional intelligence. Measurement styles heavily altered the broader results as well.

The association with human flourishing was most pronounced when researchers used the mixed or trait-based models, which rely on participants rating their own emotional skills. When studies used objective performance tests to measure emotional abilities, the association with life outcomes was weaker. This pattern became especially apparent when looking at how both emotional intelligence and life outcomes were measured.

The researchers found the strongest connections when both variables were assessed using self-report questionnaires. When one variable was measured subjectively and the other was measured objectively, the relationship between the two shrunk considerably. This dependence on measurement methods highlights an important limitation in the data.

When participants fill out multiple surveys about themselves, they may naturally rate themselves positively across the board. This shared method of data collection can artificially inflate the statistical connection between self-reported emotional intelligence and self-reported life satisfaction. The researchers noted that the particularly strong link to workplace outcomes might be partly driven by this shared measurement style, as many workplace studies rely on self-reported surveys.

Because the data in this review is entirely correlational, it cannot prove that high emotional intelligence causes a person to flourish. It is entirely possible that flourishing in life makes a person more emotionally intelligent over time. Alternatively, a third unmeasured factor, such as a stable upbringing or access to resources, could independently contribute to both higher emotional intelligence and greater life success.

The researchers also excluded studies that evaluated training programs. Because of this exclusion, they could not determine if actively training emotional intelligence causes a subsequent increase in human flourishing. Objective tests of emotional intelligence also face modern challenges.

The authors pointed out that recent studies show artificial intelligence language models perform just as well as, or better than, humans on objective emotional intelligence tests. This raises questions about what these tests are actually measuring. It remains debated whether text-based tests capture practical emotional skills or if they simply measure a person’s reading comprehension and ability to understand written scenarios.

To improve the quality of future research, the authors suggest refining how emotional intelligence is categorized. They recommend moving away from the mixed model, which blends traits and abilities in a way that creates conceptual confusion. Instead, they suggest that future studies explicitly separate objective emotional abilities from self-reported personality traits. Separating these variables would help scientists determine exactly how distinct emotional skills contribute to a fulfilling life.

The study, “Robust associations of emotional intelligence with human flourishing: A second-order meta-analysis,” was authored by Tyler J. Robinson and Ethan Zell.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/massive-review-confirms-the-connection-between-emotional-intelligence-and-human/

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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EmotionalIntelligence #HumanFlourishing #WellBeing #WorkplaceLeadership #JobPerformance #PsychologicalHealth #WellBeingResearch #EI #PersonalityTraits #MetaAnalysis

Dignity Without Conditions
Strength without hostility.
“We must reach out our hand in friendship and dignity both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy.”
Respect can coexist with firm boundaries. Save or share this. #Dignity #Leadership #EmotionalIntelligence #Respect #ConflictResolution #PersonalValues #ArthurAshe #ThoughtOfTheDay
https://stayingalive.in/thought-of-the-day/dignity-without-conditions.html

🧵

The all-knowing #FarRight is intimated by a global online #encyclopedia that provides facts and historical truth to those who care to expand their #knowledge with factual information. They are intimated by #libraries, real human knowledge, and people who are smart, educated, and have high #EmotionalIntelligence, especially women and colored people.

#damnright #truthout

🐶✨ Behold the digital doggie, #Varkos, who was conjured to "emotionally connect" with you in Skyrim! 🎮🤖 Because what the world truly needed was a low-latency AI mutt with "personality evolution" to fetch your arrows in pixelated landscapes. 🚀🌌 Enjoy the irony of a supercharged #cyberpooch designed to be emotionally intelligent in a game about yelling at dragons! 🐉💥
https://pantel.is/projects/ai-gaming-companion/ #digitaldog #AIgaming #emotionalintelligence #Skyrim #HackerNews #ngated

Some people hurt you on purpose, then act like they don't even know what you're talking about.

That's not confusion. That's a strategy.

Wrote about why you should stop explaining yourself to people who never wanted to understand in the first place 👇

[https://medium.com/velinora/the-people-who-actually-know-you-deserve-better-than-your-leftover-time-30a1555c6561?sk=34f9a9a6c0c3c2c7c30e86943abb9123]

#SelfImprovement #Boundaries #EmotionalIntelligence #MentalHealth

What if worry is imagination pointed the wrong way? “Worry is a misuse of imagination.” Redirect it toward action. #Worry #Imagination #MindfulThinking #EmotionalIntelligence #LeadershipMindset #PersonalGrowth #ThoughtOfTheDay #SanjayKMohindroo
https://stayingalive.in/thought-of-the-day/the-mind-beyond-worry.html

"A positive attitude broadens your awareness, making it easier to notice what is happening around you".

Would you like to cultivate that attitude?

'30 Days to the Life You Deserve' helps you make it happen. No gimmicks. All real.

Only $9,99! RT

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#mentalhealth #emotionalintelligence #health #ebook #ebooks #libro #libros

DATE: August 19, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: Emotional intelligence predicts whether envy leads to self-improvement or hostility

URL: https://www.psypost.org/emotional-intelligence-predicts-whether-envy-leads-to-self-improvement-or-hostility/

A recent study published in Personality and Individual Differences suggests that a person’s ability to regulate their emotions predicts how they experience envy. The findings indicate that higher emotion regulation skills are linked to benign envy, which motivates self-improvement, rather than malicious envy, which breeds hostility. This provides evidence that emotional intelligence may help channel uncomfortable feelings into constructive actions.

Envy is a common emotion that occurs when an individual lacks a desired advantage held by someone else. Christophe Haag, a professor of organizational behavior at emlyon business school in France and author of the book Le Petit Guide illustré de l’intelligence émotionnelle, designed the study to investigate how distinct forms of this emotion operate.

“A major goal of my research is to understand emotions at a fine-grained level, particularly unpleasant emotions and the very different consequences they can have,” Haag said. “I actually try to avoid describing emotions themselves as ‘positive’ or ‘negative,’ as is still often done. I think it is more accurate to describe emotions in terms of their valence—as pleasant or unpleasant—and to reserve ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ for the consequences they may have for ourselves or for others.”

Although often viewed as entirely negative, psychological research separates envy into two distinct types. Benign envy is an unpleasant but motivating feeling that pushes a person toward upward striving and self-improvement. Malicious envy is characterized by hostility and a desire to pull the other person down.

“Envy is a fascinating example,” Haag said. “Like its close cousin jealousy, it is pervasive in our social lives, yet its unpleasantness does not tell us whether its consequences will be constructive or destructive. Envy can motivate us to improve ourselves, but it can also lead us to hostility and to wanting to bring someone else down. I wanted to understand whether emotional intelligence—and particularly the ability to regulate emotions—might help explain these very different motivational trajectories.”

Both states feel uncomfortable, but they lead to very different behavioral outcomes. The reason for this divergence in motivational direction remains an open question in affective science. The way people interpret and manage emotional signals might determine whether they treat an upward social comparison as actionable information or a threat to their self-worth. Emotional intelligence provides a framework to understand this process.

Emotional intelligence encompasses several cognitive abilities related to perceiving, understanding, and managing emotions. Many previous studies on the topic have relied on self-report questionnaires, which measure how individuals perceive their own skills. Self-perceived competence often overlaps with general confidence. To get a more accurate picture, scientists increasingly use ability-based tests, which measure actual performance on emotional reasoning tasks.

Within this ability-based framework, emotion regulation is the specific capacity to select and apply the most effective strategy to achieve a desired emotional state. The current research focuses on this regulatory stage. The capacity to handle emotional responses after they are activated might shift the trajectory of envy. The researcher designed the study to test whether emotion regulation ability predicts a tendency toward constructive self-improvement rather than destructive interpersonal responses.

The researcher surveyed 442 French-speaking adults who were recruited online through social media platforms. The sample consisted of 88.5 percent women. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 72 years, with an average age of about 40.

Participants completed a performance-based assessment of emotion regulation ability rather than a self-report questionnaire. This measure required participants to read four emotionally demanding situations, such as coping with guilt or fostering trust. For each scenario, they had to select the most effective strategy for managing the emotion. Scores on this regulation test were calculated as the proportion of correct answers, ranging from 0 to 1, with the sample scoring an average of 0.539, or roughly 54 percent correct.

Participants also completed a 10-item survey rating their tendencies to experience benign and malicious envy on a scale from 1 to 6. The average score for benign envy was 3.74, suggesting a moderate presence of self-improvement motives. The average score for malicious envy was much lower at 1.66. To isolate the specific role of emotion regulation, the researcher measured and controlled for several other variables known to influence emotional responses.

These control variables included global self-esteem, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, age, and gender. Attachment anxiety, for example, involves a heightened fear of rejection, which can amplify defensive reactions in social situations. Incorporating these measures allowed the analysis to account for baseline differences in how people process interpersonal threats.

The statistical analysis indicated that higher emotion regulation ability positively predicted benign envy. A standard deviation increase in emotion regulation ability was associated with a 0.165 standard deviation increase in benign envy scores. In contrast, the association between emotion regulation ability and malicious envy was not statistically significant. A mathematical comparison of the two pathways showed that the relationship with benign envy was stronger than the relationship with malicious envy.

Alongside the main analysis, the researcher also conducted exploratory tests using a broader assessment that measured seven distinct emotional abilities.

“What I found particularly interesting was that emotion-regulation ability was associated specifically with benign envy rather than simply with lower levels of envy,” Haag told PsyPost. “That distinction matters. Emotional intelligence does not appear here as a mechanism that suppresses an unpleasant emotion; rather, it may be associated with the direction that emotion takes.”

Haag noted that emotion regulation was the emotional ability most strongly associated with benign envy among the seven abilities measured.

“This result should be interpreted cautiously, but it is consistent with the idea that regulation may be particularly relevant to what happens after an emotion has been activated,” Haag said.

The control variables also provided context for how envy unfolds. Participants with higher self-esteem reported higher levels of benign envy and lower levels of malicious envy. Attachment anxiety was strongly linked to higher levels of malicious envy. Older participants reported lower levels of both types of envy compared to younger participants.

Even when accounting for these personality and demographic factors, emotion regulation ability maintained its unique association with benign envy.

“The main takeaway is that an unpleasant emotion is not necessarily a ‘negative’ emotion in terms of its consequences,” Haag said. “What matters is not only what we feel, but what that emotion leads us to think and do. In our study, people with greater emotion-regulation ability were more likely to report benign envy—the form of envy that motivates self-improvement—whereas emotion-regulation ability was not significantly associated with malicious envy, which involves hostility and the desire to reduce another person’s advantage.”

The pattern suggests that the cognitive capacity to manage emotions effectively operates independently of a person’s general self-worth or relationship insecurities.

“So emotional intelligence may not make unpleasant emotions disappear—and that is not necessarily what we should want it to do,” Haag said. “Instead, it may help orient their consequences. In the case of envy, the useful question may therefore be less ‘How do I stop feeling this?’ and more ‘What is this emotion going to make me do?'”

The cross-sectional design of the survey means that the data represent a single snapshot in time. “The most important caveat is that this is a cross-sectional study, so we cannot establish causality,” Haag said. “We cannot conclude from these data that greater emotion-regulation ability causes envy to become constructive.”

It is possible that repeatedly engaging in constructive self-improvement over time enhances a person’s regulatory reasoning skills, rather than the other direction. The demographics of the participant pool also present certain constraints. “The sample was also predominantly female, and our performance-based measure of emotion regulation was relatively brief,” Haag said.

Testing more diverse, gender-balanced samples would help clarify whether these emotional pathways operate uniformly across different populations. “Replication with more diverse samples, broader measures, and longitudinal or experimental designs will therefore be important,” Haag said.

“One interpretation I would particularly like to avoid is that emotionally intelligent people experience ‘positive emotions’ rather than ‘negative emotions,'” Haag said. “That is not what our findings suggest. An emotionally intelligent person can experience an intensely unpleasant emotion. The important question is what that emotion subsequently produces—for the person and for others.”

Future experimental research could observe individuals in real time to see how they manage induced episodes of envy. “I would like to continue examining emotions at this finer level, particularly unpleasant emotions such as envy, jealousy, anger, fear, or guilt,” Haag said. “Rather than asking whether these emotions are inherently ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ I am interested in identifying the conditions under which they produce adaptive or maladaptive consequences.”

Such real-time observations could map out how specific mental abilities redirect uncomfortable social comparisons. “One important next step would be to induce envy experimentally and observe, in real time, how people with different levels of emotion-regulation ability respond to it,” Haag said. “More broadly, I want to better understand when emotional intelligence helps transform an unpleasant emotional signal into useful information and constructive action—and when that process fails.”

“I think the broader message extends well beyond envy,” Haag said. “Emotions themselves are not intrinsically positive or negative. They can be pleasant or unpleasant; what can become positive or negative are their consequences for ourselves and for others.”

Envy provides a vivid example of how the same underlying feeling can motivate vastly different behaviors. “Envy illustrates this particularly well,” Haag said. “Faced with someone who has something we desire, the discomfort can push us in two radically different directions: ‘I want to bring that person down’ or ‘I want to raise myself up.'”

“The emotion is unpleasant in both cases,” Haag said. “What changes is where it takes us. Understanding what determines that direction is, to me, one of the most interesting questions in the science of emotions.”

The study, “Emotional intelligence shapes the motivational direction of envy,” was authored by Christophe Haag.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/emotional-intelligence-predicts-whether-envy-leads-to-self-improvement-or-hostility/

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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EmotionalIntelligence #Envy #BenignEnvy #MaliciousEnvy #EmotionRegulation #SelfImprovement #ConstructiveBehavior #UpwardMobility #AffectiveScience #PsychologyResearch

DATE: July 17, 2026
SOURCE: AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

TITLE: What to do when someone is yelling at you, according to psychologists

URL: https://time.com/article/2026/07/16/what-to-do-when-someone-yells-at-you/

The goal, experts say, isn't to make the other person stop feeling angry. It's to make a real conversation possible again.

URL: https://time.com/article/2026/07/16/what-to-do-when-someone-yells-at-you/

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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #Deescalation #AngerManagement #CommunicationSkills #ConflictResolution #Psychology #HealthyBoundaries #ActiveListening #EmotionalIntelligence #DeescalateConflict #RespectfulDialogue

11 people share the ‘harsh truths’ that helped them become far more emotionally mature

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/11-people-share-the-harsh-truths-that-helped-them-become-far-more-emotionally-mature-ex1/

» We have 4 behavioural defaults: emotion, ego, social and inertia

“You're more likeable when you drink,” a friend said that to me in college after handing me a free beer.
The comment stayed with me for years.
It forced me to consider something I'd never thought about before: “What if my personality was too much?”

#personalgrowth #personality #emotionalintelligence #philosophy #mentalhealth

https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeepizzaandwine/p/when-your-personality-is-too-much?r=2t31ky&utm_medium=ios

Managing Anger & Emotions Awareness Educational Video for School Students in Classes 6–12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyvnK9gJID0 #ManagingAnger #EmotionalIntelligence #MentalHealth #LifeSkills #SchoolStudents #StudentWellbeing #AngerManagement #EmotionalHealth #SchoolEducation #ValueEducation #SocialEmotionalLearning #PositiveBehaviour #SchoolCounselling #Teachers #Parents #ClassroomLearning #Education #TeenMentalHealth #ChildDevelopment #StudentAwareness

Being vulnerable isn't weakness, it might be the first step toward healing.

It was one of the most unexpected lessons from #Ballard.

#PrimeVideo #TVQuotes #EmotionalIntelligence #Healing #Vulnerability #CrimeDrama #QuoteOfTheDay

http://wornoutspines.com/2026/08/04/the-strength-in-being-seen/

We usually assume people are either telling the truth or deliberately lying. But what if there's a third possibility?

#misinformation #philosophy #emotionalintelligence #personalgrowth #psychology

https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeepizzaandwine/p/coffee-with-vincent-pt-77-the-man?r=2t31ky&utm_medium=ios

Part of self-awareness and emotional intelligence is the ability to look at new information(or old information in a new light), and realise that your previous position was either incorrect, or that there's room for nuance and deeper learning/understanding.

#understanding #emotionalintelligence #selfawareness #SelfImprovement

This tragic tale of an AI assistant gone rogue is a Shakespearean comedy of errors 🎭. Imagine being shocked that a machine lacks emotional intelligence and now writes like a teenager trying to sound smart 🧐. Pro tip: next time, hire a human who can at least pretend to care! 🙃
https://chreke.com/posts/i-fired-my-ai-assistant #AIassistant #GoneRogue #ShakespeareanComedy #EmotionalIntelligence #HireHuman #HackerNews #ngated

Self-Care or Self-Centrism? The Line the Personal Development Industry Won’t Draw For You

https://www.acumentor.co/self-centrism-vs-self-care-personal-development-industry/