| The primary goal of the present study was to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and decision making. More specifically, this investigation proposed and empirically tested hypotheses in a framework consisting of abilities, skills, and behaviors in which emotional intelligence abilities (Perceiving Emotions, Using Emotions to Facilitate Thought, and Understanding Emotions) were proposed to lead to particular skills, including self-awareness, creativity, and empathy, which in turn would affect the use of heuristic-based judgment biases (overconfidence, ease of recall, false-consensus, base-rate fallacy, and insufficient anchor adjustment) that can hinder effective decision making. Thus, the purpose was to provide a more complete, explanatory model by incorporating the skills as mediating variables into the chain explaining how abilities such as emotional intelligence can affect an outcome such as the use of different judgment biases. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey design with a sample of 150 graduate students and employees in a variety of organizations. Emotional intelligence was measured with both an ability measure and a self-report measure. Results demonstrated significant relationships between the following variables: Understanding Emotions and self-awareness, Understanding Emotions and empathy, self awareness and the ease of recall bias at the item level, creativity and the insufficient anchor adjustment bias, Perceiving Emotions and the ease of recall bias at the item level, and Understanding Emotions and the false-consensus bias at the item level. In addition, self-awareness was found to mediate the relationship between Understanding Emotions and the ease of recall bias at the item level. Several marginally significant relationships between the study variables that are worthy of further research are also noted. Overall, the results indicate that various differential relationships do exist between the components of emotional intelligence, particular skills, and heuristic-based judgment biases, thus expanding our knowledge of potential antecedents of certain judgment biases that can inhibit effective decision making in organizations. Limitations and implications for theory and practice are discussed. |
