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Do We Know Emotional Intelligence When We See it? The Social Perception of Emotional Abilities

We examine the social perception of emotional intelligence (EI) through the use of observer ratings. Individuals often judge others’ emotional abilities in real-world settings, yet we know little about the properties of such ratings. This paper examines the social perception of EI and tests the hypothesis that close observers in the environment can recognize individual differences in emotional abilities. Three studies test this proposition using real-world colleagues as observers and drawing on data from 2,521 participants. Results indicate significant consensus across these observers about the EI of targets, moderate but significant self-observer agreement, modest but relatively consistent divergent validity across the components of EI, and significant predictive validity of observer ratings in work and task performance domains, even after controlling for cognitive intelligence, personality, trait affect, observer liking, and demographic characteristics. These data provide initial evidence suggesting the social perception of EI is possible. Limitations, future directions, and practical implications are discussed.