Social intelligence, the ability to understand others and to act wisely in social situations, is a concept with a long history, sporadic development, but promise as a late bloomer. Although current references to social intelligence per se are limited, the concept appears to be alive and well under various terms, e.g., role-taking, interpersonal competence, egocentrism (or decentering), and empathy. This review was designed, therefore, to: (a) serve an integrative function by tracing the history of social intelligence and its ramifications; (b) provide an overview of the measurement approaches and relevant research; (c) consider substantive issues, such as the relationship of social intelligence to abstract intelligence and the status of measuring the understanding and action aspects of the concept.
Walker et al. (1973) studied this question.