Associations of trait and ability emotional intelligence with performance on Theory of Mind tasks in an adult sample

The role of Theory of Mind in the transition towards suicidal attempts in youth NSSI: an exploratory pilot study

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) can both precede and co-occur with suicidal attempts (SA). Underlying mechanisms/factors leading to the transition to SA in NSSI youths have been proposed (including the role of social cognition), despite they should be yet confirmed. Therefore, the study aims at exploring the role of the Theory of Mind in the differentiation of a sample of NSSI youngsters (aged 15-24) according to the presence of SA. We divided the sample into 4 groups using the Deliberate Self Harm Inventory (DSHI) and Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS): control group (notNSSInotSA), NSSI without SA (NSSInotSA), NSSI with SA (NSSIplusSA), and SA without NSSI (SAonly). NSSIplusSA patients displayed higher Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) scores (indicative of ToM abilities) than both the NSSInotSA (p=0.0016) and SAonly groups (p=0.0198), while SAonly patients showed lower RMET scores compared to the control group (p=0.0214). Multiple regression models used to differentiate NSSInotSA and NSSIplusSA found a significant association between RMET and LOSCS-CSC (Level Of Self-Criticism Scale-Comparative Self-Criticism) (pC=0.0802, pD=0.0016, pG=0.0053). Our findings supported the hypothesis that a hypertrophic affective ToM may possibly be associated with the occurrence of SA in youth NSSI. Further larger and longitudinal studies should confirm these preliminary findings, by exploring all social cognition dimensions.

Dissociable neural correlates of trait and ability emotional intelligence: a resting-state fMRI study

Emotional intelligence (EI) is one's ability to monitor one's own and other's emotions and the use of emotional information to enhance thought and action. Previous behavioral studies have shown that EI is separable into trait EI and ability EI, which are known to have distinct characteristics at the behavioral level. A relevant and unanswered question is whether both forms of EI have a dissociable neural basis. Previous studies have individually explored the neural underpinnings of trait EI and ability EI, but there has been no direct comparison of the neural mechanisms underlying these two types of emotional intelligence. The present study addresses this question by using resting-state fMRI to examine the correlational pattern between the regional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) of the brain and individuals' trait EI and ability EI scores. We found that trait EI scores were positively correlated with the ALFF in the bilateral superior temporal gyrus, and negatively correlated with the ALFF in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex. In contrast, ability EI scores were positively correlated with the ALFF in the insula. Taken together, these results provide preliminary evidence of dissociable neural substrates between trait EI and ability EI.

Face and context integration in emotion inference is limited and variable across categories and individuals

The ability to make nuanced inferences about other people's emotional states is central to social functioning. While emotion inferences can be sensitive to both facial movements and the situational context that they occur in, relatively little is understood about when these two sources of information are integrated across emotion categories and individuals. In a series of studies, we use one archival and five empirical datasets to demonstrate that people could be integrating, but that emotion inferences are just as well (and sometimes better) captured by knowledge of the situation alone, while isolated facial cues are insufficient. Further, people integrate facial cues more for categories for which they most frequently encounter facial expressions in everyday life (e.g., happiness). People are also moderately stable over time in their reliance on situational cues and integration of cues and those who reliably utilize situation cues more also have better situated emotion knowledge. These findings underscore the importance of studying variability in reliance on and integration of cues.

Combining transcranial magnetic stimulation with training to improve social cognition impairment in schizophrenia: a pilot randomized controlled trial

Schizophrenia is a severe, chronic mental disorder that profoundly impacts patients' everyday lives. The illness's core features include positive and negative symptoms and cognitive impairments. In particular, deficits in the social cognition domain showed a tighter connection to patients' everyday functioning than the other symptoms. Social remediation interventions have been developed, providing heterogeneous results considering the possibility of generalizing the acquired improvements in patients' daily activities. In this pilot randomized controlled trial, we investigated the feasibility of combining fifteen daily cognitive and social training sessions with non-invasive brain stimulation to boost the effectiveness of the two interventions. We delivered intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Twenty-one patients were randomized into four groups, varying for the assigned stimulation condition (real vs. sham iTBS) and the type of cognitive intervention (training vs. no training). Clinical symptoms and social cognition tests were administered at five time points, i.e., before and after the treatment, and at three follow-ups at one, three, and six months after the treatments' end. Preliminary data show a trend in improving the competence in managing emotion in participants performing the training. Conversely, no differences were found in pre and post-treatment scores for emotion recognition, theory of mind, and attribution of intentions scores. The iTBS intervention did not induce additional effects on individuals' performance. The methodological approach's novelty and limitations of the present study are discussed.

Profiles of theory of mind impairments and personality in clinical and community samples: integrating the alternative DSM-5 model for personality disorders

Introduction

Deficits in theory of mind (ToM)-the ability to infer the mental states of others-have been linked to antagonistic traits in community samples. ToM deficits have also been identified in people with personality disorders (PD), although with conflicting evidence, partly due to the use of categorical diagnoses. The DSM-5 Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) provides an opportunity for a more precise understanding of the interplay between ToM abilities and personality pathology. Therefore, the study aims to determine whether and how individuals with diverse ToM profiles differ regarding personality impairment (AMPD Criterion A) and pathological facets (AMPD Criterion B).

Method

Adults with PD (n = 39) and from the community (n = 42) completed tests assessing ToM skills and self-reported questionnaires assessing AMPD Criteria A and B. Hierarchical agglomerative and TwoStep cluster analyses were consecutively computed using scores and subscores from ToM tests as clustering variables. Multivariate analyses of variance were subsequently performed to compare the clusters on both AMPD Criteria. Five clinically and conceptually meaningful clusters were found. The most notable differences across clusters were observed for Intimacy and Empathy dysfunctions (Criterion A), as well as for the Deceitfulness, Callousness, and Hostility facets from the Antagonism domain and the Restricted affectivity facet from the Detachment domain (Criterion B).

Discussion

The results support the association between antagonistic personality facets and ToM deficits. However, clusters showing impairments in ToM abilities did not necessarily exhibit high levels of personality dysfunction or pathological facets, emphasizing that both constructs are not isomorphic. Nevertheless, specific profiles can help refine existing interventions to make them more sensitive and specific to the nature of ToM dysfunctions while considering personality functioning and facets.

The Chinese "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test: A study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism

We developed a 28-item Chinese Eyes Test and tested its psychometric properties with a mixed sample of high-functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome and neurotypical adults. The Chinese Eyes Test showed good convergent and divergent validity, satisfactory known-group discrimination, and acceptable internal consistency. The identified cutoff score of 18 or below (Sensitivity: 66.7%; Specificity: 84.0%) should be useful for identifying clinically significant levels of social cognitive deficits, in terms of difficulty with the perceptual understanding of others' mental states, in high-functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome.

Reconceptualizing Emotion Recognition Ability

Emotion decoding accuracy (EDA) plays a central role within the emotional intelligence (EI) ability model. The EI-ability perspective typically assumes personality antecedents and social outcomes of EI abilities, yet, traditionally, there has been very limited research to support this contention. The present paper argues that the way in which EDA has been conceptualized and operationalized in EI research has ignored developments in social perception theory and research. These developments point, on one hand, to the importance of embedding emotion expressions in a social context and, on the other, to reformulating the definitions of emotion decoding accuracy. The present paper outlines the importance of context in the framework of a truth and bias model of the social perception of emotions (Assessment of Contextualized Emotions, ACE) for EI abilities.

The acute effects of alcohol on social cognition: A systematic review of experimental studies

RATIONALE

Alcohol effects on social cognition have been studied by measuring facial emotion recognition, empathy, Theory of Mind (ToM) and other forms of information processing.

OBJECTIVES

Using the PRISMA guidelines, we reviewed experimental studies that examined acute effects of alcohol on social cognition.

METHODS

Scopus, PsycInfo, PubMed, and Embase were searched between July 2020 - January 2023. The PICO strategy was used for identifying participants, interventions, comparators, and outcomes. Participants (N = 2330) were adult social alcohol users. Interventions consisted of acute alcohol administration. Comparators included placebo or the lowest alcohol dose. Outcome variables were grouped into three themes: facial processing, empathy and ToM, and perceptions of inappropriate sexual behavior.

RESULTS

A total of 32 studies were reviewed. Studies measuring facial processing (67%) often found no effects of alcohol on the recognition of specific emotions, facilitated emotion recognition at lower doses and worsened emotion recognition at higher doses. In studies measuring empathy or ToM (24%), lower doses were more likely to lead to improvements while higher doses were generally impairing. Within the third group of studies (9%), moderate to high alcohol doses made it more difficult to perceive sexual aggression accurately.

CONCLUSIONS

Lower alcohol doses might sometimes help facilitate social cognition, but most data were in line with the idea that alcohol tends to worsen social cognition, particularly at higher doses. Future studies might focus on examining other moderators of the effects of alcohol on social cognition, particularly interpersonal characteristics such as trait emotional empathy, and participant and target gender.

The non-human animal reading the mind in the eyes test (NARMET): A new measure for the assessment of social cognition

The Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET) is a widely applied test of social cognition, based on mental state judgments in response to photographs of human eyes, which can elicit impairment in patients with numerous psychiatric and neurological disorders. However, interpretation of task performance is limited without the use of appropriate control tasks. In addition to a matched task requiring age judgments of the RMET stimuli, it was recently shown that a mental state judgment task of comparable difficulty, could be developed using photographs of domestic cat eyes. The current study aimed to further develop a Non-human Animal RMET (NARMET) by testing additional stimuli in the form of photographs of domestic dog eyes. A variety of additional tasks were used alongside the eyes test stimuli in a large sample of healthy young adults, to explore how alexithymia, schizotypal features, and autistic tendencies may differentially influence mental state attribution in response to cat, dog, and human eyes test stimuli. The resulting NARMET features both cat and dog trials, depicting a similar range of complex mental states to the human RMET. It shows favorable psychometric properties as well as being well matched to the RMET in terms of linguistic variables, length and difficulty. However, reading measures predicted performance on the RMET, but not on the NARMET. Although further testing is required in samples with a higher proportion of males, future application of the NARMET in neuropsychiatric populations exhibiting cognitive and behavioral difficulties could offer enhanced assessment of social cognitive skills.

Domains and measures of social cognition in acquired brain injury: A scoping review

In acquired brain injury (ABI), social cognition is a contributing factor to the changes observed in functional outcomes. However, progress in assessing and understanding social cognitive impairments is limited by a lack of consistency in terminology and the proliferation in assessment tools, leading to a lack of consensus on what should be assessed and how. This review aims to examine the domains of social cognition commonly assessed in ABI, the assessment tools used, and the appropriateness of these tools for researchers and clinicians. Using the Arksey and O'Malley scoping review methodology, 367 articles reporting results from 10,930 people with an ABI met our inclusion criteria. The five most commonly assessed domains of social cognition were emotion perception, theory of mind, social communication, identity recognition and empathy. The most commonly used measure of these domains included: the Ekman and Friesen photo series, Faux Pas Recognition Test, La Trobe Communication Questionnaire, Benton Facial Recognition Test and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. There are well-validated measures readily available that are underused in favour of non-standardized measures clinically or the development of one's own measure in research. The appropriateness of the identified measure for research and clinical use was discussed, including suggestions for future research.

Harnessing the benefits of diversity to address socio-environmental governance challenges

Solving complex problems, from biodiversity conservation to reducing inequality, requires large scale collective action among diverse stakeholders to achieve a common goal. Research relevant to meeting this challenge must model the interaction of stakeholders with diverse cognitive capabilities and the complexity of the problem faced by stakeholders to predict the success of collective action in various contexts. Here, we build a model from first principles of cognitive abilities, diversity, and socio-environmental complexity to identify the sets of conditions under which groups most effectively engage in collective action to solve governance problems. We then fit the model to small groups, U.S. states, and countries. Our model illustrates the fundamental importance of understanding the interaction between cognitive abilities, diversity, and the complexity of socio-environmental challenges faced by stakeholders today. Our results shed light on the ability of groups to solve complex problems and open new avenues of research into the interrelationship between cognition, institutions, and the environments in which they co-evolve.

Anxiety symptoms and theory of mind in older and younger adults: curvilinearity moderated by age group

OBJECTIVES

Theory of mind (ToM), the ability to reason about mental states, declines in later life. While anxiety symptoms may predict ToM abilities, the nature of associations requires more elucidation. Further, it is unknown whether age group moderates associational patterns. We examined associations between anxiety symptoms (linear and curvilinear) and cognitive ToM (C-ToM) and affective ToM (A-ToM); and moderation by age group (older vs. younger adults).

METHODS

In a sample of healthy younger (n = 90, M_age = 20.17 years) and older adults (n = 87, M_age = 71.52), we used hierarchical regressions with polynomial and interaction terms to assess the association between anxiety symptoms and ToM in younger and older adults.

RESULTS

Anxiety symptoms were associated with C-ToM but not A-ToM. Age group interacted linearly with anxiety (β = -1.64, p = .02), and with anxiety's quadratic polynomial (β = .84, p = .04). The inverted-U shaped association in younger adults (highest C-ToM at moderate anxiety) contrasted with older adults' linear decline in C-ToM with increasing anxiety.

CONCLUSION

We highlight the importance of anxiety symptoms for predicting ToM, and clarify that associations vary by age. Elucidating associations may be critical to developing interventions that improve social wellbeing.

Theory of Mind and Alexithymia in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Young Adults

The aim of the current study was to examine theory of mind (ToM), the ability to infer the mental states of others, in young adults who are deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), and to explore the influence of alexithymia, an inability to understand emotions of the self and others, on ToM performance in this group. Compared to participants with typical hearing, DHH participants displayed significantly lower affective ToM skills and greater alexithymia. After accounting for verbal intelligence quotient, hearing status and alexithymia significantly contributed to poorer ToM performance, accounting for over 14% of the variance. Having a parent who is deaf and being part of the Deaf community were associated with better emotion processing and appear to be important protective factors. Findings provide support that ToM difficulties may linger into young adulthood among DHH individuals and that alexithymia may be a contributing factor. Early intervention programs emphasizing emotional understanding, perspective-taking, and communication skills are warranted for DHH children as well as their caregivers.

Distinguishing between trait emotional intelligence and the five-factor model of personality: additive predictive validity of emotional intelligence for negative emotional states

There is ongoing debate on the utility of trait emotional intelligence and whether it is distinguishable from the five-factor model of personality. In study 1, we investigated the incremental validity of trait emotional intelligence in predicting negative emotional states, after controlling for the five-factor model personality traits. The TEIQue, Mini-IPIP, and DASS-21 were administered to a community based Australian sample. Three significant predictive models emerged: (1) wellbeing, and neuroticism predicting depression; (2) emotionality, and neuroticism predicting anxiety; and (3) self-control, and neuroticism predicting stress. In Study 2, we further explored the relationship between TEIQue domains, neuroticism, and negative emotional states. Three partial mediation models were found: (1) wellbeing mediated the relationship between neuroticism and depression; (2) emotionality mediated the relationship between neuroticism and anxiety; and (3) self-control mediated the relationship between neuroticism and stress. The findings highlight that trait emotional intelligence is related to, and yet distinct from extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness. They also provide support for the incremental validity of the TEIQue domains in predicting depression, anxiety, and stress, beyond the five-factor model personality traits in a community based Australian sample, with the domains of trait emotional intelligence potentially operating as protective factors from pervasive negative moods.

The 'Reading the mind in the Eyes' test and emotional intelligence

The 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' test (Eyes Test) has been widely used to measure theory of mind (ToM) or the ability to recognize the thoughts and feelings of others. Although previous studies have analysed its relationship with the ability to perceive emotions, the potential links with more complex emotional abilities remain unclear. The aim of the present research was to analyse the relationship between the Eyes Test and each of the emotional intelligence (EI) branches: perceiving, facilitating, understanding and managing emotions. In addition, we were interested in studying these relationships as a function of the Eyes Test difficulty. Eight hundred and seventy-four participants completed the Eyes Test and the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test. A stepwise multiple regression analysis for the total score on the Eyes Test revealed that the best fitting model included the understanding, perceiving and managing emotion branches, with the understanding branch being the one most strongly associated with performance on the Eyes Test. Interestingly, stepwise multiple regression analysis for the easiest items of the Eyes Test revealed the same predictors, but, in the case of the most difficult items only the understanding branch was a predictor. These outcomes were not moderated by the influence of gender. Our findings support the notion that the Eyes Test can be used as a ToM task and that it is associated with complex EI abilities. Limitations and future lines of investigation are discussed.

Psychometric assessment of social cognitive tasks

Although there has been a marked increase in interest in social cognition (SC) in recent years, psychometric data relating to many tasks used to measure its components remain limited in healthy populations with only five articles published to date. It is accordingly premature to speak of a consensus concerning the specific components, or best tests of the components, and possible cultural differences. The present study sought to partially fill that gap, examining the psychometric properties of a battery of SC tasks in a sample of 100 healthy adults aged 18-85 years old. Initially, nine tasks assessing four SC components were selected: emotion recognition, theory of mind, attributional bias, and social judgment. Construct validity and criterion-related validity were assessed using factor and correlational analyses. Performance across age and sex groups was also investigated. Reliability was assessed through internal consistency, interrater and intercoder agreement. Results indicated satisfactory properties for the Ambiguous Intentions Hostility Questionnaire-blame score, the Social Judgment Task, the Facial Emotions Recognition Test, and a modified version of the Strange Stories Task. Statistically significant differences were found between the groups with regard to age and sex after accounting for demographic and cognitive factors. However, the correlations of these measures with relationship quality were mostly very low, raising questions about their concomitant validity. Other tasks showed sub-optimal properties, suggesting that some frequently used tests require further validation or modifications to ensure the quality of research findings. Based on the results, recommended measures for future studies and limitations are discussed.

Students' Trait Emotional Intelligence and Perceived Teacher Emotional Support in Preventing Burnout: The Moderating Role of Academic Anxiety

The current study sought to investigate the role of trait emotional intelligence and perceived teacher emotional support in school burnout. Furthermore, the moderating role of academic anxiety in these relationships was examined. A sample of 493 Italian high school students (81.9% female) aged 14–19 years (M = 16.27, SD = 1.48) was involved in the study. A latent moderated structural equation approach was performed to test the hypothesized model. The results showed that both trait emotional intelligence and perceived teacher emotional support were negatively associated with school burnout. Moreover, academic anxiety moderated the relation between perceived teacher emotional support and school burnout. Specifically, when the level of anxiety was high, the protective role of perceived teacher emotional support toward burnout was weakened. Findings are discussed in light of the protective role of resources on burnout and considering the detrimental impact of academic anxiety in school settings.

Social and general intelligence improves collective action in a common pool resource system

On a planet experiencing global environmental change, the governance of natural resources depends on sustained collective action by diverse populations. Engaging in such collective action can only build upon the foundation of human cognition in social-ecological settings. To help understand this foundation, we assess the effect of cognitive abilities on the management of a common pool resource. We present evidence that two functionally distinct cognitive abilities, general and social intelligence, improve the ability of groups to manage a common pool resource. Groups high in both forms of intelligence engage in more effective collective action that is also more consistent, despite social or ecological change. This result provides a foundation for integrating the effects of cognitive abilities with other dimensions of cognitive diversity to explain when groups will and will not sustainably govern natural resources.

Age similarities in matching pro- and contra-hedonic emotional strategies to everyday scenarios

Older adults are motivated to maximize positive affect in the present. Young adults will purposely feel negative and high arousal emotions in order to achieve a goal. However, this type of contra-hedonic emotional alignment has not been extensively studied with older adults. We expected older adults are less likely than young adults to select high arousal and negative emotions within specific scenarios where those states could be useful. In two studies, participants selected the emotion they preferred in hypothetical problems that varied on the arousal and valence best suited for goal achievement. Young and older adults were equally likely to endorse affective strategies that matched both pro and contra-hedonic scenarios. While older adults may be generally motivated to avoid negative and high-arousing emotions, they are just as likely as young adults to indicate that these states could be helpful in certain situations.

Relationships among Trait EI, Need Fulfilment, and Performance Strategies

Performance strategies used in sport have been the focus of many sport enhancement interventions, and are considered important factors for describing behavior in sport. Several studies have shown that both trait emotion intelligence (trait EI) and satisfaction of basic needs in sport are relevant aspects of performance strategies used by athletes; however, it seems these two aspects were never tested concurrently, in an integrated framework. The aim of this study was to test a mediational model of psychological basic needs in the relationship between trait EI and performance strategies in sports. In a sample of 187 participants, aged between 16 and 25 years old (M_age = 20.55; SD = 3.39), instruments were administered to measure trait EI, satisfaction of basic needs, and performance strategies in sport. Results of this study showed that trait EI was related to performance strategies in sport and to satisfaction of basic needs, as well as that satisfaction of basic needs was related to performance strategies in sport. Furthermore, satisfaction of basic needs has shown a mediational role in the relation between trait EI and performance strategies in sport.

A meta-analysis of the relationship between emotion recognition ability and intelligence

The ability to recognise others' emotions from nonverbal cues (emotion recognition ability, ERA) is measured with performance-based tests and has many positive correlates. Although researchers have long proposed that ERA is related to general mental ability or intelligence, a comprehensive analysis of this relationship is lacking. For instance, it remains unknown whether the magnitude of the association varies by intelligence type, ERA test features, as well as demographic variables. The present meta-analysis examined the relationship between ERA and intelligence based on 471 effect sizes from 133 samples and found a significant mean effect size (controlled for nesting within samples) of r = .19. Different intelligence types (crystallized, fluid, spatial, memory, information processing speed and efficiency) yielded similar effect sizes, whereas academic achievement measures (e.g. SAT scores) were unrelated to ERA. Effect sizes were higher for ERA tests that simultaneously present facial, vocal, and bodily cues (as compared to tests using static pictures) and for tests with higher reliability and more emotions. Results were unaffected by most study and sample characteristics, but effect size increased with higher mean age of the sample. These findings establish ERA as sensory-cognitive ability that is distinct from, yet related to, intelligence.

Psychometric Properties and Criterion Validity of STEU-B and STEM-B in Chinese Context

Emotional intelligence (EI) has attracted increasing attention in organizational psychology. The aim of this study was to test the applicability of two performance-based emotional intelligence tests developed in western countries, namely, the brief versions of the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding (STEU-B) and the Situational Test of Emotional Management (STEM-B), in a sample of 904 Chinese employees. Specifically, item response theory (IRT) analyses were conducted. The item parameters along with the item and test information functions of the Chinese versions of the STEU-B and STEM-B were estimated. Moreover, the associations between the STEU-B and STEM-B scores and several work-related variables were examined. The results showed that the STEU-B and STEM-B had acceptable internal consistencies, and similar mean proportions of correct responses, item parameters, item information functions, and test information functions in China, as reported in previous studies. Furthermore, the scores were found to be related to the employees’ psychological strain, job-related affect, job satisfaction, and supervisor-rated job performance in a theoretically hypothesized manner. These findings suggested that the STEU-B and STEM-B might be useful measurements in future EI studies in the Chinese organizational context.

The Role of Emotional Intelligence Factors in Workers’ Occupational Health and Safety Performance—A Case Study of the Petroleum Industry

Introduction: Despite improvements in occupational health and safety due to technological advancements and the adoption of management systems, accidents continue to occur in the oil and gas (O&G) industry. These accidents are often linked to human factors. The emotional intelligence (EI) of workers, however, has the potential to influence some of the human factors that predispose to accidents. Methods: In this study, we investigated how the EI factors of workers influence their health and safety performance in the work place. A total of 124 O&G industry workers completed a web-based questionnaire. Five and 14 key success factors of EI and effective occupational health and safety management systems were respectively identified through a systematic evaluation of the literature. Results: EI success factors of ‘being able to rule one’s own emotions to facilitate thinking’, ‘being able to deal with the emotions of others’ and ‘being able to discuss one’s own emotions accurately’ were found to have a relationship with health and safety performance of workers. Conclusion: The findings demonstrated that certain success factors of EI are vital for improving the health and safety performance of workers and that the development of these competencies should be part of the workers’ professional development.

The importance of cognitive diversity for sustaining the commons

Cognitive abilities underpin the capacity of individuals to build models of their environment and make decisions about how to govern resources. Here, we test the functional intelligences proposition that functionally diverse cognitive abilities within a group are critical to govern common pool resources. We assess the effect of two cognitive abilities, social and general intelligence, on group performance on a resource harvesting and management game involving either a negative or a positive disturbance to the resource base. Our results indicate that under improving conditions (positive disturbance) groups with higher general intelligence perform better. However, when conditions deteriorate (negative disturbance) groups with high competency in both general and social intelligence are less likely to deplete resources and harvest more. Thus, we propose that a functional diversity of cognitive abilities improves how effectively social groups govern common pool resources, especially when conditions deteriorate and groups need to re-evaluate and change their behaviors.

Social intelligence and general intelligence are two distinct cognitive abilities. Here, the authors show that groups of people with high competency in both social and general intelligence perform better in a resource-management task involving cooperation, and adjustment to unexpected ecological change.

Four-Branch Model of Ability Emotional Intelligence With Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence: A Meta-Analysis of Relations

We meta-analytically investigated relations between the four-branch model of ability emotional intelligence (EI) with fluid (Gf) and crystallized intelligence (Gc; 352 effect sizes; ntotal = 15,333). We found that for each branch, the strength of relations with Gf and Gc were equivalent. Understanding emotions has the strongest relation with Gf/Gc combined (ρ = .43, k = 81, n = 11,524), relative to facilitating thought using emotion (ρ = .19, k = 51, n = 7,254), managing emotions (ρ = .20, k = 74, n = 11,359), and perceiving emotion (ρ = .20, k = 79, n = 9,636); for the latter, relations were also moderated by stimulus type. We conclude with implications and recommendations for the study of ability EI.

Deception Detection and Truth Detection Are Dependent on Different Cognitive and Emotional Traits: An Investigation of Emotional Intelligence, Theory of Mind, and Attention

Despite evidence that variation exists between individuals in high-stakes truth and deception detection accuracy rates, little work has investigated what differences in individuals' cognitive and emotional abilities contribute to this variation. Our study addressed this question by examining the role played by cognitive and affective theory of mind (ToM), emotional intelligence (EI), and various aspects of attention (alerting, orienting, executive control) in explaining variation in accuracy rates among 115 individuals (87 women; mean age = 27.04 years [ SD = 11.32]) who responded to video clips of truth-tellers and liars in real-world, high-stakes contexts. Faster attentional alerting supported truth detection, and better cognitive ToM and perception of emotion (an aspect of EI) supported deception detection. This evidence indicates that truth and deception detection are distinct constructs supported by different abilities. Future research may address whether interventions targeting these cognitive and emotional traits can also contribute to improving detection skill.

Enhancing the Prediction of Emotionally Intelligent Behavior: The PAT Integrated Framework Involving Trait EI, Ability EI, and Emotion Information Processing

Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been conceptualized in the literature either as a dispositional tendency, in line with a personality trait (trait EI; Petrides and Furnham, 2001), or as an ability, moderately correlated with general intelligence (ability EI; Mayer and Salovey, 1997). Surprisingly, there have been few empirical attempts conceptualizing how the different EI approaches should be related to each other. However, understanding how the different approaches of EI may be interwoven and/or complementary is of primary importance for clarifying the conceptualization of EI and organizing the literature around it. We introduce a theoretical framework explaining how trait EI, ability EI, and emotion information processing – a novel component related to EI recently introduced in the literature (e.g., Fiori and Vesely Maillefer, 2018) – may contribute to effective emotion-related performance and provide initial evidence supporting its usefulness in predicting EI-related outcomes. More specifically, we show that performance in a task in which participants had to infer the mental and emotional states of others, namely a Theory of Mind task, was predicted jointly (e.g., interaction effects) by trait EI, ability EI, and emotion information processing, after controlling for personality and IQ (N = 323). Our results argue for the importance of investigating the joint contribution of different aspects of EI in explaining variability in emotionally laden outcomes.

Facing others' misfortune: Personal distress mediates the association between maladaptive emotion regulation and social avoidance

Previous research has linked the use of certain emotion regulation strategies to the vicarious experience of personal distress (PD) and empathic concern (EC). However, it has not yet been tested whether (1) vicarious PD is positively associated with maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, (2) vicarious EC is positively associated with adaptive emotion regulation strategies or whether (3) PD and EC mediate the link between emotion regulation and reports of approach/avoidance in response to a person in distress. To that end, we assessed people’s reports of PD (i.e., anxious, troubled and upset) and EC (i.e., concerned, sympathetic and soft-hearted) in response to a video depicting a person in a threatening situation (n = 78). Afterwards, we assessed participants’ reports of avoidance and approach with regard to the character and their disposition to use maladaptive and adaptive emotion regulation strategies. Results showed that both PD and EC were positively related to maladaptive strategies and negatively related to adaptive strategies, and that the association between maladaptive regulation strategies (i.e., rumination) and the willingness to avoid the person in distress was mediated by reports of greater PD. This study thus expands previous evidence on the relationship between maladaptive regulation strategies and affective empathy and provides novel insights into the main role that PD plays in the association between maladaptive strategies and social avoidance.

Divine Emotions: On the Link Between Emotional Intelligence and Religious Belief

There have been only few attempts to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and religiosity. However, none of them included measures of ability EI. In two studies, we investigated the potential associations between various aspects of religious belief and ability and trait EI. In Study 1 (N = 240), we found that ability EI was positively associated with general level of religious belief. Study 2, conducted among Polish Christians (N = 159), replicated the previous result on the connection between ability EI and religion. Moreover, both trait and ability EI were negatively correlated with extrinsic religious orientation and negative religious coping. Additional analysis showed that extrinsic orientation mediated the relationship between ability EI and religiosity.

The psychometric properties of the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test: an item response theory (IRT) analysis

INTRODUCTION

The "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test (hereafter: Eyes Test) is considered an advanced task of the Theory of Mind aimed at assessing the performance of the participant in perspective-takingthat is, the ability to sense or understand other people's cognitive and emotional states. In this study, the item response theory analysis was applied to the adult version of the Eyes Test.

METHODS

The Italian version of the Eyes Test was administered to 200 undergraduate students of both genders (males = 46%). Modified parallel analysis (MPA) was used to test unidimensionality. Marginal maximum likelihood estimation was used to fit the 1-, 2-, and 3-parameter logistic (PL) model to the data. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) due to gender was explored with five independent methods.

RESULTS

MPA provided evidence in favour of unidimensionality. The Rasch model (1-PL) was superior to the other two models in explaining participants' responses to the Eyes Test. There was no robust evidence of gender-related DIF in the Eyes Test, although some differences may exist for some items as a reflection of real differences by group.

CONCLUSIONS

The study results support a one-factor model of the Eyes Test. Performance on the Eyes Test is defined by the participant's ability in perspective-taking. Researchers should cease using arbitrarily selected subscores in assessing the performance of participants to the Eyes Test. Lack of gender-related DIF favours the use of the Eyes Test in the investigation of gender differences concerning empathy and social cognition.

The Mind and Heart of the Social Child: Developing the Empathy and Theory of Mind Scale

Empathy and theory of mind (ToM) are distinctive psychological constructs in predicting children’s social functioning. This study provided evidence of the independent nature of these constructs and developed a parent questionnaire for measuring individual differences in children’s empathy and ToM. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis based on responses of 116 parents of Hong Kong children established a three-factor structure of the Empathy and Theory of Mind Scale (EToMS), that is, Empathy, Nice ToM, and Nasty ToM. An additional 189 parents of Study 2 confirmed this three-factor model. A subsample of 93 children (M=4.97, SD = .84, 47 boys) from Study 2 took part in child measures of helping and lying behaviors as well as false belief understanding. The results supported the reliability and validity of the EToMS, making it a useful assessment of children’s social predispositions.

A psychometric analysis of the reading the mind in the eyes test: toward a brief form for research and applied settings

The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test is a popular measure of individual differences in Theory of Mind that is often applied in the assessment of particular clinical populations (primarily, individuals on the autism spectrum). However, little is known about the test's psychometric properties, including factor structure, internal consistency, and convergent validity evidence. We present a psychometric analysis of the test followed by an evaluation of other empirically proposed and statistically identified structures. We identified, and cross-validated in a second sample, an adequate short-form solution that is homogeneous with adequate internal consistency, and is moderately related to Cognitive Empathy, Emotion Perception, and strongly related to Vocabulary. We recommend the use of this short-form solution in normal adults as a more precise measure over the original version. Future revisions of the test should seek to reduce the test's reliance on one's vocabulary and evaluate the short-form structure in clinical populations.

The Relation of Alexithymic Traits to Affective Theory of Mind

Little research has focused on the contributors to adult theory of mind (ToM) even though there is reason to suspect individual differences in performance in neurotypical samples. Alexithymia, a term that references an impaired ability to attend to and verbally label emotions via ongoing introspection, is a useful construct through which to explore how socially relevant dimensions of emotion processing enable ToM. As 1 study has explored alexithymia vis-à-vis cognitive ToM, this study examined the relationships between facets of alexithymia and affective ToM while controlling for the potential confounds of empathy, verbal ability, and negative affect. A nonclinical sample of adults (N = 86) completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, the Mehrabian and Epstein Scale of Emotional Empathy, the Profile of Mood States, and the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that externally oriented thinking contributed unique variance to affective ToM, confirming an inverse relationship between alexithymia and affective ToM but highlighting the need to parse alexithymia into discrete facets when exploring its relevance to social cognition.