Large Study Challenges Assumptions About Emotional Intelligence and Gender

A long-held assumption that women possess greater emotional intelligence than men doesn’t hold up cleanly under closer examination, according to a large analysis spanning three decades of research. The study, published in APA PsycNet, combined data from 1,279 academic papers and 609,278 people across 76 countries, and found a picture far more specific than a simple advantage for either sex.

Women scored higher, on average, at recognizing and understanding emotions. But when it came to regulating emotions, the pattern reversed depending on whose emotions were involved: men and boys tended to score higher on tasks that involved managing their own feelings, while women scored higher on tasks involving managing other people’s. “Women show an advantage in recognizing and understanding emotions, and in regulating other people’s emotions,” said Jochen Menges, a professor of leadership at Cambridge Judge Business School and the University of Zurich, and one of the study’s authors. “For managing their own emotions, the pattern reverses slightly, and men score higher. That matters, because being expected to manage other people’s feelings is not the same as being better equipped to manage your own.”

 The results also shifted depending on how emotional intelligence was measured. Women’s advantage was larger on performance-based tests, where people complete tasks scored for accuracy, and smaller on self-report surveys, where people simply rate their own ability. “Women are emotionally intelligent. Men think they are,” Menges said. “On performance-based tests, women’s advantage is substantial. On self-reports, it almost disappears. Self-perception and demonstrated ability are not the same thing.” The study couldn’t pin down why that gap exists, he added: “Men may overestimate their abilities, women may underestimate theirs, or both may be happening. Either way, confidence and competence are not the same, and organizations should not confuse them.”

Lead author Mary Hausfeld, of the University of Limerick, said the findings argue against treating emotional intelligence as a single trait. “Common assumptions about women and men’s emotional abilities are often too broad,” she said. “The evidence points to a picture in which differences depend on the skill being examined and the context in which it is measured.”

Because the dataset spans nearly three decades, the researchers could also track change over time, finding that overall gender differences in emotional intelligence have narrowed in recent years, most noticeably among children. “That pattern is consistent with changing socialization and gender norms, but it doesn’t establish the cause,” Menges said. “Age, generation, and time period cannot be separated in this data, and biological explanations cannot be ruled out.”

The researchers say the findings carry practical stakes for workplaces, where high emotional intelligence has been linked to job performance, stress management, and communication. Treating women’s emotional intelligence as settled fact, they warn, risks loading them with a disproportionate share of emotional labor at work. “Persistent assumptions that women naturally possess greater emotional intelligence create two risks,” Menges said. “Real differences may be dismissed as unscientific. At the same time, broad claims can reinforce stereotypes and push emotional work onto women.” His advice to organizations: “Treat it as a set of skills. Use validated performance-based measures where they exist, rather than relying on self-reports. Develop these abilities in everyone, and don’t let emotional work aimed at others become women’s responsibility by default.”