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The Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence
The problem is that EQ is "morally neutral". It can be used to help, protect, and promote oneself and others, or it can be used to promote oneself at the cost of others. In its extreme form, EQ is sheer Machiavellianism--the art of socially manipulating others in order to achieve one's own selfish ends. When used in this way, other people become social tools to be used to push oneself forward even at considerable expense to them. Some people confuse Machiavellianism with psychopathy or even social impairment syndromes, such as Asperger Syndrome. Here's a handy way to distinguish them:
• An Asperger individual may not know that you're feeling.
• A psychopath doesn't care what you're feeling.
• A Machiavellian manipulates your feelings to achieve selfish ends.
This dark side of EQ is relatively easy to demonstrate in laboratory settings. In one set of studies, a small group of college students were given a hypothetical problem to solve, namely, determining how they would survive following a plane crash in a remote mountain area with only rope, matches, and 3 ounces of water. In each group, one or two individuals came to dominate the group, steering the discussion down particular paths and emphasizing some offered solutions over others. Now here is the interesting part: These dominant individuals also turned out to be people who were best at deception. For example, when asked to take a sip of a truly foul tasting liquid and then tell others that the liquid tastes great, these dominant individuals were more convincing than others. It was on the whole difficult to tell when they were lying. This was true even when the study was repeated with preschool children. Again, the dominant kids were best at deception.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/good-thinking/201408/the-dark-side-emotional-intelligence