Emotional Intelligence Research: A Narrative Review

Emotional intelligence research published in the last two years (2024-2025) is reviewed here including studies on the effects of emotional intelligence, the risks for low emotional intelligence, neural correlates of emotional intelligence and a couple arts interventions for increasing emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence has had positive effects on personality traits, on school and job performance, on psychological well-being and on reducing suicidality. Low levels of emotional intelligence have been reported for those having adverse childhood experiences and those who were “faking good” on emotional intelligence scales. Neural correlates of emotional intelligence have been identified via fMRIs including the temporal gyrus and the insula. Arts and dance interventions have increased emotional intelligence. Methodological limitations of this literature include the almost exclusive sampling of university students and self-reporting rather than testing of emotional intelligence.