Emotional intelligence (EI) is generally presented as encompassing a set of inter- and intra-personal capabilities which are beneficial to high-EI individuals (e.g., higher capability to manage stress and to manage the emotions of others). High EI is also generally described as beneficial to those with whom that person interacts, with managing the emotions of others being illustrated with examples giving a positive outcome for both parties, such as calming a colleague’s angry mood. This perspective places EI under the umbrella of positive psychology (Salovey, Mayer, & Caruso, 2002). There is indeed substantial evidence for positive, life-enhancing aspects of EI, with positive associations being found with happiness, life satisfaction, psychological health, and social network quality and size (Austin et al., 2005, Day et al., 2005, Furnham and Petrides, 2003). There is similar evidence for negative associations of EI with stress, depression-proneness and loneliness (Saklofske et al., 2003, Slaski and Cartwright, 2002). It is however possible that EI could relate to negative as well as positive outcomes. An obvious example would be an individual making use of high-level capabilities to read and manage the emotions of others to manipulate their behaviour to suit that individual’s interests. There could also be negative aspects of intrapersonal EI (is attending to and understanding one’s own moods always helpful, independent of situation?), but we leave this issue aside for future study and focus on interpersonal EI. Interestingly, the issue of emotional manipulation, and of other possible negative uses of EI has scarcely been raised within the individual differences literature, although De Raad (2005) notes that the use of EI in manipulative and non-prosocial ways is a neglected area of study. Possible negative aspects of EI have also been raised by Carr (2000) from a philosophical perspective. He argues that the value of EI is “dependent on the moral end which it serves”, noting the existence of “something not always clearly distinguishable from emotional intelligence – emotional cleverness or cunning” (p. 31, italics as in original text). This viewpoint is not addressed in current EI research, and looking for evidence of emotional cunning or manipulativeness from an individual differences/psychometrics perspective is clearly of interest.
