Increasing emotional intelligence to decrease healthcare expenditures: How profitable would it be?

Abstract

While numerous studies document the impact of emotional intelligence on health, no study has estimated the associated economic impact. As a result, the return on investment that could be expected from investing in improving emotional intelligence is unknown, and emotional intelligence research does not always make the expected impact on public policies. In this study, we examine how profitable it would be for governments or insurances to invest in improving people's emotional intelligence (EI). 9616 members of a Mutual Benefit Society completed a measure of EI that we coupled with their healthcare expenditures. Results first show that every 1% increase in intrapersonal EI corresponds to a 1% decrease in healthcare expenditures. Findings also show that the return on investment of increasing intrapersonal EI would vary as a function of people's educational level: the lower the level of education, the higher the expected return.