Emotional Intelligence in the Laboratory: A Practical Guide

When Chen was a doctoral student a decade ago, there was one ability she wished she had developed above all others: emotional intelligence. The often-overlooked skill of recognizing and managing her own emotions, while understanding those of other people, might have helped her avoid years of personal and professional distress.

During her PhD, Chen says, her supervisor paid little attention to her academic work but developed a romantic interest in her. Their relationship became toxic yet exhilarating. “I believed everything he said,” Chen recalls. She uses a pseudonym to avoid potential consequences for her career.

The relationship ended after Chen completed her postdoctoral studies and asked her former supervisor to clarify their status so she could make informed decisions about her future. His response shocked her: “He stopped all communication with me.”

The breakdown also affected Chen’s academic career. She says the director reassigned several of her projects to other students without consulting her. When the resulting papers and patents were published, Chen says she was not credited as a co-author or inventor, despite contributing to the work. If her efforts had been recognized, she believes she would now be in a “much stronger position professionally.”

The sudden loss of communication left Chen confused and heartbroken, affecting her productivity and confidence. In hindsight, she says her supervisor behaved unprofessionally and exploited the power imbalance between them. She also believes that stronger emotional intelligence might have helped her recognize his misleading promises earlier and recover more effectively from the relationship.

Collection: How to grow a healthy lab

Emotional intelligence is an umbrella term covering self-awareness, empathy, communication, social skills and emotional regulation. Together, these abilities help people understand their own reactions, respond constructively to others and navigate difficult relationships.

In academia, emotional intelligence is often overlooked in favor of technical expertise, publication records and measurable results. Yet Mark Brackett, a psychologist at Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence in New Haven, Connecticut, says it can be essential for long-term career success. “It helps you deal with any barriers to achieving your life goals,” he says.

Several universities, including Yale University and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, offer courses focused on emotional intelligence. Brackett’s center helps staff manage difficult emotions and build supportive learning environments, while Harvard’s programme examines emotional intelligence in leadership. However, relatively few institutions provide this type of training specifically for doctoral researchers, laboratory leaders and other academic professionals.

Thomas Chamorro-Premuzic, an organizational psychologist at University College London, says researchers continue to debate what emotional intelligence is, how it should be measured and how much it matters in the workplace. Its value may also depend on the job. Emotional intelligence is likely to be especially important for people who regularly collaborate, lead teams or support others, compared with those who work mostly alone. “Because of the popularity of this concept, what’s missing from the discussion is a little bit of nuance,” Chamorro-Premuzic says.

Can emotional intelligence be developed?

The concept of emotional intelligence was formally introduced nearly 40 years ago by Yale psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer.¹ They described it as a group of abilities that enables people to recognize their own emotions and those of others, then use that information to guide thinking and behavior.

Five years later, psychologists and New York Times journalist Daniel Goleman popularized the idea and broadened its definition to include empathy, communication, relationship management and conflict resolution.²

Since then, emotional intelligence has developed into a collection of competing models, definitions and assessment methods, Chamorro-Premuzic says. The American Psychological Association in Washington DC defines it as “the ability to process emotional information and use it for reasoning and other cognitive activities.”

A major point of disagreement is whether emotional intelligence is a learnable skill or simply a different way of describing personality. Some researchers define it as a set of cognitive abilities that can be strengthened through practice. Others view it as an innate trait, while some models combine both perspectives.

Other researchers have expanded the concept further. Camilla Davis Rosenthal, a learning-design researcher at Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom who studies wellbeing in higher education, uses the term “social emotional intelligence”. This includes social responsibility: a moral compass that encourages behavior with positive effects on other people.³

Despite the disagreement over definitions, emotional intelligence has become the “darling of the human resources industry,” Chamorro-Premuzic says. Some research suggests that people with higher emotional intelligence experience greater career success and job satisfaction and may be more innovative than colleagues with lower scores.⁴ Studies also associate emotional intelligence with effective leadership and stronger professional relationships.

However, higher emotional intelligence does not always produce better outcomes, Chamorro-Premuzic cautions. Some studies link emotional intelligence with creativity,⁵ while other evidence suggests that traits commonly associated with it, including agreeableness and conscientiousness, can show negative correlations with certain measures of emotional intelligence.⁶

People with high emotional intelligence might also be less willing to challenge established practices or make bold decisions, he adds. They may prioritize politeness and harmony over disruption and innovation.

Organizations that place excessive emphasis on emotional intelligence could also overlook talented employees who are anxious, reserved, emotionally intense or less comfortable in social situations. Emotional intelligence can support academic leadership and collaboration, but it should complement—not replace—technical ability, creativity, critical thinking and professional accountability.