memes

I said it was not a valid measurement system. It never was a measurement system at all. It's bullshit on top of bullshit that believe believe in and it becomes a brief collective delusion.

In corpo land it was nothing more than 'feedback' questionnaires from which they derived a score used to evaluate managers.

Just like the Atkins diet and every health/food trend. This is the same thing, just in terms of psychology.

And like a lot of things in psych it's simple a product of how attractive you are and what tones of voice you use, and all that. Legit psych studies show us that people interpret people's intelligence and empathy based on their physical appearance, more than anything else, which is rooted in cultural expectations and stereotypes.

Nobody is taking EQ/emotional intelligence tests, other than random stupid quizzes on the internet, like MBTI or self-diagnosed authistic/adhd folks. Legit psychologies and therapists are not measuring anyone's 'emotional intelligence' because it's not a real thing that can be measured.

And no, I have no issue with the original researcher. He was pursuing his own theory and doing legit work, but it was bastardized when it was popularized. Which is pretty much the case of all legit science and research. Most popular interpretations of most scientific theories are vastly oversimplified to the point they are incorrect, because they aren't about doing science, they are about making a neat little meme that dumb folks can parrot to feel smart. That's what emotional intelligence is, a meme.