Is 'emotional Intelligence' even a thing? Here's the science

[C C]

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-...-in-humans

EXCERPTS: Emotional intelligence, the ability to regulate and perceive emotions, is the subject of much debate amongst scientists and the public alike. Whilst most people agree that being able to read other people and control your own feelings are positive characteristics that vary in strength between individuals, objectively defining and measuring these abilities is not easy. We asked 13 experts in psychology "Is there scientific evidence for emotional intelligence?", most of the experts said "yes". Here's what we found out...

[...] The takeaway: There is scientific evidence for the human ability to understand and regulate emotions, but emotional intelligence is not yet clearly defined or easily measured. (MORE - missing details)

[Leigha]

To me, it means understanding our emotions - why we're feeling a particular way, and not letting those emotions dictate our decisions. Sometimes, easier said than done.

I've read different takes on it though, some feel it's a gauge as to one's level of empathy.

[stryder]

Terming it "Emotional Intelligence" sounds like it's an attempted egostroke to keep people from realising the actual agenda of sociopaths. Quantifying something that can be calculated and manipulated. (e.g. Cambridge Analytica)

Emotions are used primarily for manipulation, everytime someone makes some passionate speech filled with emotion stirring rhetoric. It's not looking for the cold intellect to deduce rationality, it's looking for spurring enmass emotional response to make the agenda more notible and this of course leads to a "Lemming Effect" where people mindless follow even to the extent of their own demise enmass. (Lemming's mass deaths were caused when their natural food supply wanes and they attempt to cross a route that was only passable at certain times of year. If the food supply waned at the wrong time, the little critters would be left trying to swim a distance that would ultimately lead to them drowning)

As for emotions themselves, it's the transcendence of communication in a way that doesn't require speech or writing, something that can be observed and empathetically "felt". Therefore it's something that existed before such social developments evolutionarily. It makes sense for emotions and feeling to be nurtured through family as it's the initial connection a person makes with their offspring (e.g. a baby's giggle or a cry)

From an adversarial perspective it's also an exploitive weakness, it's not encrypted and guarding against it's abuse is akward. (How many pleeding defendents are in tears when on the dock attempting to profess either their innocence or that they didn't intend to do the crime, perhaps even that they might have learnt their mistake in hindsight.)

There is then emotional blackmail that some people find themselves subjected to in relationships. How many women have had men suggest they would self-harm if they didn't do as they ask or threaten to expose explicit images or hidden videos to keep someone entrapped.

Although I mention all the potential toxic ways emotions can be abused, there is also ways when nurtured that it can lead to things that we all either know of or love. Art, Music, Literature and even Sports can install positive emotions (along with various hobby related pastimes) although to some it's all completely lost on them.

[Leigha]

From what I’ve read about it, if one doesn’t manage his/her emotions or channel them in positive ways, that would demonstrate a lack of emotional intelligence. It’s a phrase that has come up often in the workplace over the past couple of years, to foster better team building, lessen conflicts, and improve morale. That’s the gist of it anyway, but I’d imagine someone could appear “emotionally intelligent,” yet it’s really just a facade designed to manipulate.

[Magical Realist]

It greatly demystifies emotional intelligence if we realize it is all based on the very human ability to empathize and care about others. One gets used to certain signs and microexpressions of pain and confusion in people's faces and habitually acknowledging and validating that usually unnoticed level of experience in others. I suppose the capacity for empathy and compassion may be largely inborn, and thru experience becomes emotional intelligence. I lack the instinctive ability of emotional connectiveness, but I am trying to cultivate it the more I go thru life.