The intervening role of Agreeableness in the relationship between Trait Emotional Intelligence and Machiavellianism: Reassessing the potential dark side of EI

Emotional intelligence in medical education: a critical review

“…It is positively associated with psychological well‐being and even orgasmic frequency in women . The popularisation of EI as ‘mattering more than IQ’ has promoted it as a crucial attribute for successful psychological and social functioning, although it must be noted that recent research cites individuals who display high levels of emotional competence as having the potential to be Machiavellian . The importance of EI may, it could be argued, be stronger for professionals whose everyday work is highly emotionally charged, and particularly in contexts that involve higher levels of ‘emotional labour’ .…”

“…31 The popularisation of EI as 'mattering more than IQ' 24 has promoted it as a crucial attribute for successful psychological and social functioning, although it must be noted that recent research cites individuals who display high levels of emotional competence as having the potential to be Machiavellian. 32 The importance of EI may, it could be argued, be stronger for professionals whose everyday work is highly emotionally charged, 33 and particularly in contexts that involve higher levels of 'emotional labour'. 34 A short answer to question 1, then, is that EI is a construct that has face validity in medical education because doctors must respond appropriately to multiple emotional experiences every working day.…”

Can Deficits in Emotional Intelligence Explain the Negative Relationship Between Abandonment Schema and Marital Quality?

“…Conversely, conflict, violence, and deception are more likely to occur between couples with lower levels of trait EI (Brackett, Warner, & Bosco, 2005). Research has also demonstrated that high trait EI is associated with higher empathic perspective-taking and self-monitoring in social interactions, higher levels of agreeableness, higher social skills, more accommodating responses toward partners, and the experience of more affectionate relationships (O'Connor & Athota, 2013;Schutte et al, 2001;Smith, Heaven, & Ciarrochi, 2008). Conversely, conflict is found between couples with lower levels of these skills (Brackett et al, 2005).…”

Associations of the managing the emotions of others (MEOS) scale with personality, the Dark Triad and trait EI

“…Two additional factors (Conceal, Poor skills) were found to be characterised respectively by a tendency to conceal one's own emotions and by self-assessed low capability to change another's mood. The Worsen and Inauthentic factors are of particular interest within EI research, as they cover an aspect (selfserving manipulation of the emotions of others) of the somewhat under-researched "dark side" of EI (Austin, Farrelly, Black, & Moore, 2007;Kilduff, Chiaburu, & Menges, 2010;O'Connor & Athota, 2013).…”

“…As with consistent findings of negative associations of trait EI with Machiavellianism (O'Connnor & Athota, 2013), these associations do not provide an obvious link to the "dark side" of EI, as they indicate that high EI is negatively rather than positively associated with self-serving and manipulative 5 behaviour, even though EI in principle provides a capability for such behaviour. A recent study (O'Connor & Athota, 2013) has highlighted the key role of Agreeableness in a possible resolution of this issue. In this work, a mediation model showed that Agreeableness accounted for the association between trait EI and Machiavellianism.…”