Emotional intelligence and attentional bias to emotional faces: Evidence of hypersensitivity towards emotion information

It has been proposed that emotional intelligence (EI) functions as a magnifier of experience. This phenomenon, called the “hypersensitivity hypothesis,” predicts high EI amplifies aspects experience ( Fiori & Ortony, 2021 ). We tested whether individuals show stronger attention to than neutral expressions with dot-probe task in which participants N = 155) had report letter appearing behind an or face. A significant interaction by experimental condition showed attentional bias towards faces associated EI: on emotion understanding were faster respond cues replacing compared face, effect was not found for low-EI individuals. Results support are particularly reactive information, confirming basic assumptions hypersensitivity hypothesis. Implications research discussed.