THE MISERABLE EMPATH. ABOUT THE DARK SIDE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
THE MISERABLE EMPATH. ABOUT THE DARK SIDE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Summary/Abstract: This paper makes a short incursion into emotional intelligence and its potential implications with regard to mental health issues and other negative effects. It was initially assumed that emotional intelligence would have a good impact on health, overall wellbeing, interpersonal relations and would be a predictor of success at the workplace. However, more recent studies have also explored the darker sides of emotional intelligence and have shown that it might have downsides for the individual as well. Aspects such as increased sensitivity, heightened affective states and overemphasis on emotions can represent drawbacks for emotionally intelligent people, making them more vulnerable, hindering their judgment, or impairing their social and professional performance. Empathy is one of the core dimensions of emotional intelligence and we can argue that it is the most likely to have destructive influence, to be emotionally draining and overwhelming for the person who exhibits an empathetic mindset and behavior. The present paper includes a small experiment that investigates the relationship between empathy and sadness, or depressive tendencies. The results indicate that individuals who display a predisposition to depression or report a history of depression score higher in several components of emotional intelligence, particularly in empathy. Differences between men and women are also taken into consideration and prove to be relevant in the analysis.

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