People with 'eye for emotions' earn more in jobs

The extensive international study by University of Bonn has shown that shown that the "ability to recognize emotions" affects income.

The researchers used a validated collection of images and recordings of actors and children - that is, of people who have learned to clearly express their feelings or who do not want to hide their feelings in an "adult" manner. These emotion expressions were then shown to 142 working adults who were recruited to participate in this research study. The participants were asked to recognize the emotion expression - whether it was angry or sad, happy or scared, for example.

Corresponding author of the study, Professor Dr. Gerhard Blickle, said that on average, the participants succeeded in 77 percent of the cases. People who succeeded in 87 percent of the cases were considered to be good, and people who succeeded in more than 90 percent of the cases were considered really good. Those below 60 percent, in contrast, were seen as not so good in recognizing emotions.

Once the emotion recognition task was completed, the researchers asked the participants' colleagues and supervisors to assess the political skills of the participants.

According to Blickle, the result indicated that people with a good ability to recognize emotions "are considered more socially and politically skilled than others by their colleagues. Their supervisors also attribute better social and political skills to these people. And, most notably, their income is significantly higher."

The study is published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior.