What We Know About Emotional Intelligence: How It Affects Learning, Work, Relationships, and Our Mental Health Moshe Zeidner, Gerald Matthews, Richard D. Roberts

Emotional intelligence (or EI)—the ability to perceive, regulate, and communicate emotions, to understand emotions in ourselves and others—has been the subject of best-selling books, magazine cover stories, and countless media mentions. It has been touted as a solution for problems ranging from relationship issues to the inadequacies of local schools. But the media hype has far outpaced the scientific research on emotional intelligence. In What We Know about Emotional Intelligence, three experts who are actively involved in research into EI offer a state-of-the-art account of EI in theory and practice. They tell us what we know about EI based not on anecdote or wishful thinking but on science.

EI promises a new means for achieving success and personal happiness. Coaches and consultants offer EI training and administer EQ tests—despite the lack of any agreement on how to measure EI, the usefulness of testing for EI, and even how to define EI. What We Know about Emotional Intelligence looks at current knowledge about EI with the goal of translating it into practical recommendations in work, school, social, and psychological contexts. The authors discuss what is (and what isn't) EI, why the concept has such appeal today, how EI develops, and the usefulness of EI in the real world—in school curricula, the workplace, and treating psychological dysfunction.
"The idea of emotional intelligence has been both useful and popular. Amid all the attention it has received, Moshe Zeidner, Gerald Matthews, and Richard Roberts have been essential in helping us to distinguish what is known scientifically about it from what is hoped for and what is hyped."
—Keith Oatley, University of Toronto, author of Emotions: A Brief History

"The work of Moshe Zeidner, Gerald Matthews, and Richard D. Roberts has provided a welcome and much needed corrective to the runaway (and sometimes misleading) popularizations of emotional intelligence. Their latest book, What We Know about Emotional Intelligence focuses on the real science behind emotional intelligence, and it indicates the concept's potential contributions to human psychology and life. This readable, well-informed, and intelligent new work offers a lively, contemporary commentary on the field, from which there is much of value to be learned."
—John D. Mayer, University of New Hampshire

"Together with their previous two books, Zeidner, Matthews, and Roberts have now given us a remarkable emotional intelligence trilogy. This very readable book is a comprehensive and critical analysis integrating EI research and theory to inform application and practice."
—Donald H. Saklofske, Division of Applied Psychology, and Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

About the Authors