Since Daniel Goleman popularized Emotional Intelligence in 1995, many more studies have been done to try to unravel the significance of this concept. One of the most interesting research was conducted in the Middle East and included more than 400 managers who held different positions within their organizations. The researchers concluded that Emotional Intelligence could predict the odds of success in a career with 58% confidence.Another Canadian study involving 372 college students found that 80% of students who scored well also had good emotional intelligence.
However, the fact that Emotional Intelligence is linked to success and, in a sense, facilitates it, is only one of the many implications of this quality, as its tentacles reach many other spheres of our existence and influence our behavior.
How does emotional intelligence work in everyday life?
1. It helps us make better decisions
Emotions can be of great help when we are faced with a problem, because they can warn us of danger and make us take a more cautious attitude. However, they sometimes become a hindrance, especially when we are strangers to the situation we face. Either way, emotional intelligence helps us make better decisions, or at least that's established a study by the universities of Yale and Toronto.
These researchers devised a curious experiment: they involved people and made them anxious by asking them to prepare an impromptu speech. They later asked them if they would be willing to support a medical clinic project.
The results showed that people with higher emotional intelligence were aware that the anxiety experienced was not related to the decision to be made. Therefore, 66% approved the project, while only 7% of those with low emotional intelligence supported it.
The point is that, contrary to popular belief, a good decision does not involve eliminating emotions, because they too are a valuable source of information, as they act as somatic markers. The key is to find out where these feelings come from, what causes them, and how they can affect our perception of the problem.
2. It makes us trust others
Although distrust has become fashionable in recent years and has come to establish itself as a model of social behavior, the fact is that trust in others has multiple advantages. We know that trusting not only makes us happier and increases our level of satisfaction, but also guarantees us better physical health and a greater propensity to undertake new projects.
Now, a study conducted at the University of Oxford reveals that people with good emotional intelligence tend to rely more on others. These researchers are convinced that the key lies in their ability to be empathic and quickly identify the positive characteristics of the people they relate to. Because?
Firstly, Emotional Intelligence helps to form a fairly accurate picture of the person in front of us, allowing us to minimize uncertainty and adopt a more open attitude. Furthermore, Emotional Intelligence also involves a certain degree of self-confidence, which probably projects itself onto others.
3. It reduces stress
Numerous studies have found a positive correlation between emotional intelligence and low stress levels. For example, researchers at the University of Cincinnati recruited 200 people and subjected them to different tasks that generate varying degrees of stress. Thus they could see that those with higher emotional intelligence were less stressed. The key is that these people use stress management strategies that are very effective and that allow them to regulate the intensity of negative emotions by controlling their effects.
An even more interesting study from Yale University went further by discovering how emotionally intelligent people's bodies respond to stress. This time the researchers could see that even in stressful situations, these people showed lower levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) and lower blood pressure. This indicates that addressing conflicts and problems with emotional intelligence really helps to alleviate the effects of stress, even on a physical level and even if we are not aware of it.
Can Emotional Intelligence be developed?
Emotional Intelligence is a set of skills that allow us to recognize and regulate both our emotions and those of others. This implies that it is not an innate ability but can be developed throughout our life. In fact, there are Emotional Intelligence courses in which you work on different skills. The interesting aspect is that with these courses you not only get very fast results, but also stable over time.
However, if you opt for one of these courses, make sure they are taught by an accredited university or serious psychological center, as these problems are often breeding ground for many makeshift gurus promoting easy recipes without any scientific basis.
Most of these courses spend a few hours analyzing the concept of emotional intelligence and the bases that support it and then move on to practical activities, through which you will be taught to identify your emotions, their causes and how to manage them to obtain the maximum benefit. From a social point of view, we work on empathy and on the ability to deal with conflicts by preventing negative emotions from taking over.
