Emotional intelligence in digital interactions – A call for renewed assessments

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been a subject of academic investigation for thirty years. There has been much debate on how to measure these forms of EI and the reliability of their assessment, but the actual context in which emotional intelligence is developed and used has interestingly received scarce interest. More specifically, a critical gap exists in considering the rise and impact of digital interactions on emotional intelligence. Indeed, with the rise of social media and the increase in digital interactions, emotions are inextricably related to our behavior online. It is thus fundamental to adapt the assessment of EI in digital contexts. This paper aims to address this gap by suggesting assessment methods that account for the specificities of the interactions in the digital world. We start by acknowledging the variety of digital interactions and provide a categorization of them using the theories of media richness and media synchronicity. We then illustrate the potential for renewed assessments in self reports and performance tests at different levels, from item contextualization to digital assessment of EI. By integrating the digital dimension in emotional intelligence assessment, this paper aims to bring a novel perspective on measuring EI in digital interactions.