ReviewFrontiers in psychology2016
Does Emotional Intelligence have a "Dark" Side? A Review of the Literature.
Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The shared variance amongst the measures of individual differences and trait EI: a meta-meta-analytic comparison.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Development and psychometric evaluation of the Emotional Intelligence Test (EMI-T) for social care and healthcare student selection.Journal of advanced nursing · 2023Pooled it
- Does Emotional Intelligence Buffer the Effects of Acute Stress? A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Pooled it
- Are Effect Sizes in Emotional Intelligence Field Declining? A Meta-Meta Analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Pooled it
- Personality Type, Emotional Intelligence, and Successful Matching Into Emergency Medicine Residency Programs.Cureus · 2026Article
- How supervisor-subordinate emotional appraisal ability congruence influences unethical pro-supervisor behavior: the mediating effect of supervisor-subordinate guanxi.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- The Role of Emotion Dysregulation in Suicidal Ideation Intensity and Suicide Attempts in Crisis Hotline Callers.Archives of suicide research : official journal of the International Academy for Suicide Research · 2026Article
- Validation of the Arabic version of the Brief Emotional Intelligence Scale.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Social support and avoidance mediate positive and negative effects of emotion recognition ability on mental health in medical students.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Investigating the relationship between electronic learning and emotional and cultural intelligence of 2021-2022 incoming nursing students at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Ability-Related Emotional Intelligence: An Introduction.Journal of Intelligence · 2024Article
- Emotional self-knowledge profiles and relationships with mental health indicators support value in 'knowing thyself'.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Emotional intelligence and the dark triad: a latent profile analysis to investigate the Jekyll and Hyde of the emotionally intelligent manager.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- From burnout to behavior: the dark side of emotional intelligence on optimal functioning across three managerial levels.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- With Great Sensitivity Comes Great Management: How Emotional Hypersensitivity Can Be the Superpower of Emotional Intelligence.Journal of Intelligence · 2023Article
- Resilience as the Ability to Maintain Well-Being: An Allostatic Active Inference Model.Journal of Intelligence · 2023Review
- Ability and Trait Emotional Intelligence: Do They Contribute to the Explanation of Prosocial Behaviour?European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2023Article
- Enjoyment, boredom, and perceived effectiveness of learners in language MOOCs: the mediating effect of self-regulated learning.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- QEPro: An ability measure of emotional intelligence for managers in a French cultural environment.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Emotional intelligence (EI) was once touted as the panacea for a satisfying and successful life. Consequently, there has been much emphasis on developing interventions to promote this personal resource in applied settings. Despite this, a growing body of research has begun to identify particular contexts when EI does not appear helpful and may even be deleterious to a person, or those they have contact with, suggesting a "dark" side to the construct. This paper provides a review of emergent literature to examine when, why and how trait and ability EI may contribute to negative intrapersonal (psychological ill-health; stress reactivity) and interpersonal outcomes (emotional manipulation; antisocial behavior). Negative effects were found to operate across multiple contexts (health, academic, occupational) however these were often indirect, suggesting that outcomes depend on pre-existing qualities of the person. Literature also points to the possibility of "optimal" levels of EI-both within and across EI constructs. Uneven profiles of self-perceptions (trait facets) or actual emotional skills contribute to poorer outcomes, particularly emotional awareness, and management. Moreover, individuals who possess high levels of skill but have lower self-perceptions of their abilities fare worse that those with more balanced profiles. Future research must now improve methodological and statistical practices to better capture EI in context and the negative corollary associated with high levels.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.