Emotional Intelligence Research Hub

By
Evan Watkins
-
153

Every month, we publish a new data-backed study exploring a simple question:

How does emotional intelligence (EQ) actually show up at work?

This page is a living library of our monthly research. Each study includes a short summary, the key findings, and practical implications for leaders, HR, and talent development teams.

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Key takeaways so far

Here’s what our research is already making clear:

  • EQ is strongly connected to both job performance and earning power. In our study of 1,499 working professionals, higher EQ aligned with higher self-rated performance and higher salary bands, with gains that compound meaningfully over a career.
  • Relationship Management is the standout EQ skill. Across the four EQ skill areas (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management), Relationship Management showed the strongest association with job performance and salary outcomes.
  • EQ doesn’t predict whether someone adopts AI at work, but it likely affects how they use it. In a sample of 993 professionals, EQ had essentially no relationship with daily or weekly AI usage.
  • EQ and Decision Making. In a study of 1393 people, we saw that higher EQ correlated with using a decision-making process and accurately assessing the outcomes of your decisions.

Study index

Jump to any study:

Want to bring the quantitative to life with the qualitative?

This page documents qualitative interviews with dozens of L&D leaders responsible for EQ training at their companies.

February 2026

EQ & Decision Making

Core question: Does emotional intelligence improve decision-making?

Snapshot

  • Sample: 1,393 working professionals
  • What we measured: EQ, “Do you use a decision-making process” (5-point scale), “Did your decisions turn out as expected?” (5-point scale)
  • Bottom line: Higher EQ correlated strongly with both using a decision-making process and accurately predicting the outcomes of your decisions. 
  • The full writeup is coming soon…

What We Found

This study points to three major findings around decision-making.

  1. Use of a Decision Process: Those scoring high in emotional intelligence were significantly more likely to use a decision-making process.
  2. Accurate Assessment of Decision Outcomes: Those scoring high in emotional intelligence were also much more likely to see outcomes that align with their expectations.
  3. Self-Management and Social Awareness: Self-management and social awareness were especially strongly correlated to good decision-making. Self-management likely helps decision makers regulate their emotions and social awareness likely helps decision makers take their impact on others into account.

What it means for leaders and L&D

  • Decision-Making Is a NECESSARY Skill Right Now: Across major reports, like the World Economic Forum Future of Work report, the McKinsey jobs report, and LinkedIn Learning report, “decision-making” frequently tops the list of skills that will be essential in this “AI Era.” And, so does EQ.
  • Improve Your People's EQ, and You'll Improve Their Decision-Making: If you need a “starting place” for training priorities, it makes a lot of sense to start with EQ, which both appears on the list of the most necessary AI Era skills and has a strong correlation with other skills on the list, like decision-making.
  • If you're already training EQ, and you want to train decision-making, spend more time on self-management and social awareness, because our research suggests that those two areas drive the most impact on decision-making.

January 2026

EQ & AI Adoption: Do Emotionally Intelligent People Use AI More?

Core question: Are people with higher emotional intelligence more likely to use AI at work?

Snapshot

  • Sample: 993 working professionals
  • What we measured: EQ + whether respondents use AI daily and/or weekly
  • Bottom line: EQ showed no meaningful relationship with AI adoption frequency.
  • Read the full write-up here.

What we found

Across 993 respondents, overall EQ was essentially unrelated to:

  • Daily AI use (correlation near zero), and
  • Weekly AI use (also near zero).

In practical terms, this suggests AI adoption is likely driven more by factors like role, access, workflow expectations, and organizational norms than by social-emotional skill level alone.

What it means for leaders and L&D

If EQ isn’t driving adoption, the leadership question becomes:

What determines whether AI use improves work or creates risk?

This study points toward three leadership implications:

  1. Don’t assume adoption = capability. Someone can be a frequent AI user and still be sloppy with judgment, tone, or verification. EQ skills are critical when it comes to judgment, communication, and decision-making.
  2. Low EQ + high AI usage creates predictable failure modes. AI can amplify impulsive decisions, weak fact-checking, and poor communication habits if the user isn’t thoughtful about context and impact.
  3. High EQ can function as an “AI force multiplier.” If high-EQ employees are using AI at the same rates as others, the advantage may come from using it more intentionally. These high EQ power users can better choose when to rely on AI vs. when to lean into human judgment and relationship skills.

What we want to study next

Because the results of this study were “no relationship,” a logical follow-up study is to test whether EQ predicts:

  • quality of AI outputs (not just usage frequency),
  • judgment and verification behavior
  • communication outcomes (tone, clarity, trust, relationship impact).

December 2025

EQ, Job Performance & Salary: The Data Shows It’s Worth $500K

Core question: Do EQ scores relate to job performance and earnings?

Snapshot

What we found

1) Better EQ, better job performance

As EQ increased, self-rated job performance increased as well. In this dataset, a ~10% EQ increase translated to roughly a 0.2–0.3 jump on a 5-point performance scale—often enough to move someone into a higher performance tier.

2) Higher EQ, higher salary

EQ also correlated with higher salary tiers. A ~10% boost in EQ predicted about a quarter-step movement into the next salary bracket.

Because the salary bands used represent large jumps (at least $50,000 per band), even modest EQ gains can carry meaningful financial weight. In this dataset, a ~20% EQ increase (about eight EQ points) corresponded to roughly $15,000–$20,000 more in annual earnings, which compounds to nearly half a million dollars over a 30-year career.

3) Relationship Management was the strongest EQ lever

When breaking EQ into four core skills (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management), Relationship Management emerged as the most consistently powerful dimension associated with both job performance and salary.

What it means for leaders and L&D

  • If you want to defend EQ development internally, don’t position it as “nice to have.” Position it as performance capability with measurable career impact.
  • If you need a “starting place” for training priorities, Relationship Management is a strong bet because it bundles real workplace behaviors (conflict, feedback, trust, collaboration) that show up in outcomes.
  • If you’re measuring leadership development ROI, EQ provides a practical set of trainable behaviors to aim at and re-measure over time.

How we measure EQ

In LEADx’s EQ framework, emotional intelligence is broken into four skill areas:

  • Self-Awareness
  • Self-Management
  • Social Awareness
  • Relationship Management

Our assessment is validated by an external group of psychologists.

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Evan Watkins
http://leadx.org
Head of Content and Community at LEADx. Author of "Emotional Intelligence: 52 Strategies" and "Frontline Leadership Training." Learn about becoming a certified emotional intelligence coach and facilitator at leadx.org/eq-certification.

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