Emotional intelligence and manipulation: Are those scoring higher on EI measures more likely to negatively manipulate others' for personal gains?

The association between emotional intelligence (EI) and manipulation was examined in this study. The possibility that individuals who score higher on EI would be more likely to negatively manipulate others for personal gain was the main hypothesis. The links between EI/manipulation and perceived social support, gender, and personality were also examined. Another aim was to validate a new 58 item measurement regarding mood changing techniques by conducting a factor analysis, which extracted four factors called reassurance, emotional Mach, emotional concealment and negative manipulation. A second study was then conducted to see whether participants’ factor scores correlated significantly between two separate times. Two online surveys were created, the first composed of measurements regarding the changing mood survey (CMS), emotional management (STEM), emotional understanding (STEU), perceived social support (MSPSS) and a personality measure (Mini-IPIP). The second survey just included the CMS measure. Although the relationship between overall EI and manipulation was non-significant, males were found to be more likely to manipulate than females if their STEU score was high. EI correlated most positively with reassurance methods of positive mood changing. The personality factors most associated with EI were Openness, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. It was also found that higher scores on reassurance scores were the biggest predictor of scores on overall perceived social support although positive relationships were also found with the three subscales. Our findings show that people scoring higher on EI measures are less likely to negatively manipulate others and report higher levels of perceived social support. Males were found to score higher on measures looking at negative aspects of manipulation and also found to be more likely to conceal emotions. Strengths and limitations of the study are examined and possibilities for future research are discussed