title: The social perception of emotional abilities: expanding what we know about observer ratings of emotional intelligence.
abstract: We examine the social perception of emotional intelligence (EI) through the use of observer ratings. Individuals frequently judge others' emotional abilities in real-world settings, yet we know little about the properties of such ratings. This article examines the social perception of EI and expands the evidence to evaluate its reliability and cross-judge agreement, as well as its convergent, divergent, and predictive validity. Three studies use real-world colleagues as observers and data from 2,521 participants. Results indicate significant consensus across observers about targets' EI, moderate but significant self-observer agreement, and modest but relatively consistent discriminant validity across the components of EI. Observer ratings significantly predicted interdependent task performance, even after controlling for numerous factors. Notably, predictive validity was greater for observer-rated than for self-rated or ability-tested EI. We discuss the minimal associations of observer ratings with ability-tested EI, study limitations, future directions, and practical implications.
authors: Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis.
authors: Hillary Anger
authors: HA
authors: Elfenbein
authors: Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
authors: Sigal G
authors: SG
authors: Barsade
authors: Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
authors: Noah
authors: N
authors: Eisenkraft
mesh_terms: D032921:Consensus; D056348:Emotional Intelligence; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D019370:Observation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D012938:Social Perception; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis