IQ vs EQ

IQ tests measure cognitive abilities such as reasoning, memory and processing speed against age norms. Emotional intelligence refers to perceiving, understanding, using and regulating emotions. EQ is measured in two very different ways: ability-based tests with right and wrong answers, and self-report questionnaires that overlap substantially with personality traits. The two approaches produce different findings, which is why blanket claims about EQ should be treated carefully.

Ability-based emotional intelligence tests ask people to identify emotions or judge how to manage them, scored against expert or consensus answers. Self-report and mixed questionnaires ask people how emotionally skilled they believe they are. Joseph and Newman's meta-analysis found these two families behave differently: ability-based measures related more closely to cognitive ability, while mixed and self-report measures overlapped substantially with personality traits such as conscientiousness and emotional stability, and it was largely those measures that showed the headline links with job performance. So "EQ predicts success" depends heavily on which kind of EQ was measured.

Popular claims such as "EQ accounts for most of job success" trace back to trade books rather than to peer-reviewed estimates, and the meta-analytic picture is more modest: emotional intelligence measures add something beyond cognitive ability and personality for some jobs, particularly those with high emotional demands, and much less for others. The sensible reading is that both cognitive and interpersonal skills matter, that measurement of each is imperfect, and that specific job-relevant skills predict performance better than either general construct.