Scientific American - Too Much Emotional Intelligence Is a Bad Thing

This piece explores the idea that there might be a price to pay for empathy and that too much awareness of others' emotional states could bring on an increased level of personal stress.  While the study in question centers specifically on emotional intelligence in males, it does raise some interesting questions about the extent to which we need to emphasize empathy to strengthen relationships and where the metaphorical line needs to be drawn in order to avoid stress on ourselves.

An excerpt: "In students who were rated more emotionally intelligent, the stress measures increased more during the experiment and took longer to go back to baseline. The findings suggest that some people may be too emotionally astute for their own good..."

 Further, the piece discusses "dark side of emotional intelligence," suggesting that those who  are more"emotionally astute" can utilize this strength in order to manipulate or take advantage of people, or fall victim to depression and hopelessness.

Emotional Intelligence

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