Emotional intelligence and emotional reactivity: Understanding the hypersensitivity hypothesis

The hypersensitivity hypothesis suggests that individuals with high emotional intelligence (EI) experience emotions more intensely than those with lower EI. The aim of the current study was to examine whether high-EI individuals perceive and experience stronger affective responses in response to the emotions observed in others. To investigate this, participants were asked to evaluate the intensity and arousal of facial expressions displaying anger, happiness, and neutrality. The three factes of ability EI were measured: recognition, understanding and management of emotion. It was hypothesized that individuals with high EI would report greater intensity and arousal in response to angry and happy expressions compared to neutral ones. Results confirm the hypersensitivity hypothesis regarding the intensity of emotions, although findings were less consistent for arousal. Furthermore, findings varied across different facets of emotional intelligence (EI): individuals with greater emotion understanding and perception evaluated angry expressions more extremely, while those higher on emotion management emphasized happiness more. These results suggest that individuals with high EI tend to experience and evaluate emotions more extremely, particularly in terms of intensity, and show that the link between EI and emotional reactivity varies based on the specific emotion involved and the particular EI facet being examined.Particularly interesting was that evaluations of intensity of happy expressions were more amplified than evaluations of angry expressions in high EI individuals.