Lay Beliefs About Interaction Quality: An Expertise Perspective on Individual Differences in Interpersonal Emotion Ability

Abstract

Social interactions have long been a source of lay beliefs about the ways in which psychological constructs operate. Some of the most enduring psychological constructs to become common lay beliefs originated from research focused on social-emotional processes. "Emotional intelligence" and "social intelligence" are now mainstream notions, stemming from their appealing nature and depiction in popular media. However, empirical attempts at quantifying the quality of social interactions have not been nearly as successful as measures of individual differences such as social skills, theory of mind, or social/emotional intelligence. The subjective, lay ratings of the quality of interactions by naïve observers are nonetheless consistent both within and between observers. The goal of this paper is to describe recent empirical work surrounding lay beliefs about social interaction quality and ways in which those beliefs can be quantified. We will then argue that these lay impressions formed about the quality of an interaction, perhaps via affect induction, are consistent with an expertise framework. Affect induction, beginning in infancy and occurring over time, creates instances in memory that accumulate and are ultimately measurable as social-emotional expertise (SEE). The ways in which our lay beliefs about social interaction quality fit the definition of expertise, or the automatic, holistic processing of relevant stimuli, will be discussed. We will then describe the promise of future work in this area, with a focus on a) continued delineation of the thoughts, behaviors, and timing of behaviors that lead to high-quality social interactions; and b) the viability of expertise as the conceptual model for individual differences in social-emotional ability.

Quantifying social performance: A review with implications for further work

“…Social–emotional expertise (SEE) is an individual difference construct that describes the ways in which individuals differ in the timing and quality of social interactions ( McBrien et al, 2018 ; Wild and Bachorowski, 2020 ). Like the individual difference metrics described previously, SEE is intended to capture how individuals differ in social performance.…”

“…The self-perceived social performance component of SEE is currently measured with the SEE Scale ( McBrien et al, 2018 ); a 25-item self-report measure that assesses perceived typical performance in social interactions. SEE Scale scores have been associated with higher social interaction quality ratings by naïve outside observers ( Wild and Bachorowski, 2020 ), and greater positive affect induced in third party observers by individuals with high SEE Scale scores ( Wild and Bachorowski, 2020 ). These results indicate that the SEE Scale is able to capture aspects of an individual’s characteristics that have an impact on the quality of the social interactions they undertake.…”

“…As a result, there is evidence to support the perception of social stimuli as an automatic and holistic process. Automaticity and holistic processing with respect to SEE have been discussed elsewhere ( Wild and Bachorowski, 2020 ) as have related social–emotional trait and abilities that may contribute to SEE ( McBrien et al, 2018 ; Wild and Bachorowski, 2020 ). Therefore, the foci of the current discussion are working memory in SEE and potential means for quantifying SEE.…”

“…Social–emotional expertise (SEE) is the synthesis of experience, skills, and abilities that lead to individual differences in social interaction performance. The two factors that contribute to SEE are individual differences in cognition, and the quality and timing of behaviors in social interactions that affect social interaction performance ( McBrien et al, 2018 ; Wild and Bachorowski, 2020 ).…”