‘Are women more emotionally intelligent than men?’: New UL research challenges assumptions about gender and emotional intelligence

A major international study led by a University of Limerick academic has found that women score higher than men in many aspects of emotional intelligence, but that the differences are more complex than commonly assumed. 

The research, co-led by Dr Mary Hausfeld from UL’s Kemmy Business School,found that women and girls scored higher overall in emotional intelligence and were better, on average, at recognising and understanding emotions.  

However, the researchers found that gender differences varied considerably depending on the particular emotional skill being examined, who the emotion concerned, and how it was measured. 

One of the clearest findings was the difference between dealing with other people’s emotions and our own emotions. 

While women performed better at recognising and managing other people’s emotions, men and boys scored slightly higher when it came specifically to regulating their own emotions. Overall, there was only a very small gender difference in emotion regulation. 

The study analysed almost three decades of research encompassing more than 600,000 participants across 76 countries. 

Dr Hausfeld  said the scale of the analysis allowed the researchers to move beyond the broad question of whether women or men are more emotionally intelligent. 

“Our findings suggest that common assumptions about women’s and men’s emotional abilities are often too broad," she explained. 

"Rather than reinforcing stereotypes, the evidence points to a more nuanced picture in which gender differences vary depending on the emotional skill being examined and the context in which it is measured.” 

Emotional intelligence, or EI, broadly refers to people’s ability to recognise and use their own and others’ emotional states to solve problems and regulate behaviour.  

The researchers examined both general emotional intelligence and three core emotional abilities: recognising emotions, understanding emotions, and regulating emotions. 

Co-author Professor Jochen Menges of the University of Zurich and Cambridge Judge Business School explained: “Women show an advantage in recognising and understanding emotions and in regulating other people’s emotions. But for self-focused emotion regulation, the pattern reverses slightly: men and boys score higher.   

" Women may be better equipped to carry a team’s emotional weight, but a capability shouldn’t become an obligation. Organisations should develop emotional abilities in everyone.” 

Dr Hausfeld stressed that this is particularly important in the workplace: "Emotional intelligence should be understood as a set of different skills rather than something women are simply assumed to be naturally better at.  

"Organisations also need to be careful that assumptions about women’s emotional abilities do not result in women being expected to take on a disproportionate amount of emotional and social work.” 

As the study examined research conducted over nearly three decades, the team was also able to investigate whether gender differences have changed over time. 

They found that the difference between women and men in general emotional intelligence was smaller in more recent studies.  

The trend was particularly pronounced among children, where gender differences in general emotional intelligence, emotion recognition, and emotion regulation have declined over time.  

The researchers say the findings are consistent with the possibility that changing social expectations and gender norms are influencing the development of emotional skills. 

Dr Hausfeld added: “The key message is that there is no simple answer to the question of whether women or men are more emotionally intelligent. It depends on which emotional ability we are talking about, whether we are dealing with our own emotions or those of other people, how that ability is measured, and the context in which it occurs. 

“Understanding those differences can help us move away from stereotypes and towards recognising emotional intelligence as a range of skills that can be developed in everyone.” 

The study was co-led by Dr Mary Hausfeld of University of Limerick and Dr Vera Hampel of the University of Zurich, and co-authored by Leon J. Bach of the University of Zurich, and Dr Jochen I. Menges of the University of Zurich and Cambridge Judge Business School. 

Putting Assumptions to the Test: A Meta-Analytic Review of Gender Differences in Emotional Intelligence and Specific Emotion Abilities is published in Emotion.