Crossing the Cultural Divide with Emotional Intelligence
Joshua Freedman
Published March 2007

A few excerpts…

Is there a way to cut across cultural difference and understand one another at a human level? If we access the intelligence of emotions, are we just using another cultural filter, or does universality exist? Are some aspects of emotional intelligence (EQ) more or less influenced by culture? And how do we use this concept to improve performance?

One of the areas with the greatest difference is optimism. Because optimism is linked closely with performance, this finding has important implications for performance management. When people from the Americas and Asia work together, they often assess risk differently. Those from the Americas are more likely to see possible solutions and have an expectation they can affect the outcome. Coupled with research indicating optimism scores predict performance scores, this finding suggests managers from the Americas might under-evaluate the performance of their Asian team members. Conversely, it suggests Asians who want to excel in a multinational company will benefit by developing this learnable skill.

The cross-cultural aspect of emotional intelligence is of particular importance in a global economy. To the extent that emotions are a universal language and that people in all cultures and places share a similar view of traits such as integrity and authenticity, the ability to “read and write the language of emotions” is an invaluable asset.

Study confirms that while some aspects of emotional intelligence (EQ) develops with age, there’s no guarantee that older means wiser. Using the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment, researchers found a slight but significant relationship between age and EQ. The study finds that many younger people are more emotionally intelligent than their older counterparts — and that not all aspects of EQ develop without training.

There are many assumptions about emotional intelligence and age. Popular literature and “common sense” asset that older people are more aware, wise, and restrained. Is it true? Existing research indicates a slight relationship between emotional intelligence and age. How strong is this effect, and which areas of emotional intelligence are most affected by age? Are older people more self aware, better at self management, and/or do they make more principled decisions?

Using the Six Seconds’ Emotional Intelligence Assessment (SEI), a study of 405 American people shows that emotional intelligence (EQ) increases slightly with age. The relationship is r=.13 (p<.01) — slight but significant.

Researcher Lorenzo Fariselli of Six Seconds Italia conducted the analysis, “The finding suggests emotional intelligence is a developing ability; it is likely that accumulated life experiences contribute to EQ.” The research is reported in a White Paper at www.6seconds.org/sei/wp-age.php.

The study also challenges many popular beliefs about “with age comes wisdom” and the widespread perception of a “generation gap” in motivation and altruism. The relationship between EQ and age is very slight – meaning there while a majority of older people are higher in EQ, there are many young people with higher EQ scores than their older counterparts. In addition, some of the aspects of EQ can only be developed through training. So in an era where emotional intelligence is a critical competence for success, this finding shows that young people committed to their own development have a edge.

The study examined three aspects of emotional intelligence: Self-awareness, self-management, and self-direction.

Self-awareness, called “Know Yourself” in the SEI assessment, increases slightly with age. Fariselli explains, “We hypothesize that as people grow they have more opportunity to learn about emotions and the gradations of emotions, increase emotional vocabulary, and experience more and more varied life situations. Perhaps they accumulate more feedback and integrate this into greater self-awareness.” Again, age is only mildly predictive of this dimension, so there are many younger people with a highly developed self-awareness and many older people who have not developed these competencies.

Meanwhile, self-management, called “Choose Yourself” in this model, does not increase with age. This suggests the competencies in this part of the model (Navigate Emotions, Exercise Optimism, Engage Intrinsic Motivation and Apply Consequential Thinking) need specific training in order to develop. In other words, it is less likely that these will “automatically” develop through life experience.

The strongest effect is in self-direction, where age predicts 3.9% of the development of a set of skills called “Give Yourself.” There are two specific skills in this area, Empathy (noticing and appropriately responding to others’ feelings) and Pursue Noble Goals (using principles and values to drive behaviors).

Massimiliano Ghini is President of Six Seconds Italia and a leading authority on using emotional intelligence to improve business results. His hypothesis of the link between “Give Yourself” and age comes from the responsibilities of adulthood: “For many people, adulthood and aging introduce increased need and opportunity to connect with and lead others — for example engaging a team or developing an organization’s vision. As people age they have more opportunities to practice these skills.” Again, the link between age and Give Yourself is modest – so age is no guarantee for vision and wisdom.

Six Seconds is the leading international organization helping all people develop emotional intelligence. With offices in North America, Europe, and Asia, the not-for-profit publishes best-in-class tools for emotional intelligence training, conducts research, and supports the largest world-wide network of practitioners, researchers, and educators.

SEI is the premier emotional intelligence test focused on development. Compared to other similar tests, SEI report offers the most extensive report with numerous effective development suggestions. With two self-correcting indices, a consistency scale, 104 items, and 14 different norms applied in each report, it also uses the most advanced statistical analysis in the scoring algorithm. The SEI is available in English, Italian, Chinese, Indonesian, and Spanish, and French (now in research validation). Strengths, Development, Group, and Leadership reports are available. Details are available online at http://www.6seconds.org/sei/ .

More about this…

The new White Paper by the Six Seconds EQ Network found that there is a correlation between age and emotional intelligence — but it’s slight and not true for all parts of EQ. Previous research by BarOn and Salovey & Mayer also showed that EQ increases with age. What’s new here is that on the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment there were some areas that did not increase.

Researcher Lorenzo Fariselli of Six Seconds Italia (www.6seconds.it) conducted the analysis,

“The finding suggests emotional intelligence is a developing ability; it is likely that accumulated life experiences contribute to EQ.”

The study also challenges many popular beliefs about “with age comes wisdom” and the widespread perception of a “generation gap” in motivation and altruism. The relationship between EQ and age is very slight – meaning there while a majority of older people are higher in EQ, there are many young people with higher EQ scores than their older counterparts. In addition, some of the aspects of EQ can only be developed through training. So in an era where emotional intelligence is a critical competence for success, this finding shows that young people committed to their own development have a edge.

Massimiliano Ghini is President of Six Seconds Italia and a leading authority on using emotional intelligence to improve business results. His hypothesis of the link between “Give Yourself” and age comes from the responsibilities of adulthood:

“For many people, adulthood and aging introduce increased need and opportunity to connect with and lead others – for example engaging a team or developing an organization’s vision. As people age they have more opportunities to practice these skills.”

Again, the link between age and Give Yourself is modest – so age is no guarantee for vision and wisdom.

Read the White Paper: Emotional Intelligence and Age.

I just finished posting new research on emotional intelligence and age.

This study started in a workshop where we were talking about Noble Goals. In our model, the “capstone” competence of emotional intelligence is Pursue Noble Goals — there are two reasons:
1. When we engage in the pursuit of purpose we are less defensive and reactive — less about our own ego and more about the larger vision. This allows us, even compels us, to manage our emotions more effectively.
2. Really, what’s the point? We can teach people to be more intelligent at problem-solving and they invent ways to hack the net. We can teach people to be more intelligent at engineering and they develop better ways of killing. We can teach people to be more intelligent about emotions and they become master manipulators. Voila, job done, let’s call it a day. Oh – wait – missed something…. So “intelligence” isn’t enough. We need to apply that intelligence — this is wisdom. So Pursuing a Noble Goal is a way to focus our emotional aptitude and move toward wisdom.

Anyway – point of the story: One of the managers I was training said, “Aren’t older people naturally better at this competence? It seems like young people, at least in my company, don’t really have a vision.” Hrmuph.

So I asked our research team to find out.

The answer is yes – older people are slightly more likely to be emotionally intelligent – at least in four of our eight competencies. I’m excited about this result – it shows that EQ is learned and it does develop with life experience and that age isn’t enough: You have to work to learn these skills.