How do you feel about it? Evaluative bipolarity as a function of ability-related emotional intelligence

Abstract

The idea of individual differences in ability-related emotional intelligence (ability EI) has drawn considerable interest, but little is known about how such individual differences operate. In the present two studies (total N = 627), it was proposed that high EI individuals are experts at evaluation, which should be evident in terms of greater bipolarity in the extent to which positive and negative evaluations predict each other. Building on procedures in the attitude literature, participants in Study 1 were asked to evaluate word objects (Study 1a) or unfamiliar faces (Study 1b). Participants scoring higher in ability EI displayed greater bipolarity in these tasks, such that within-subject correlations involving positive and negative evaluative reactions were stronger (more inverse) at higher levels of the ability EI continuum. In Study 2, employees completed multi-item job satisfaction scales that permitted the computation of both job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction scores. Multiple regression results revealed that these positive (satisfaction) and negative (dissatisfaction) evaluation scores predicted each other to a greater extent at higher levels of ability EI. Expertise in making evaluations may be key to how variations in ability EI operate.