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Schmitt HS, Sindermann C, Li M, et al. The Dark Side of Emotion Recognition - Evidence From Cross-Cultural Research in Germany and China. Front Psychol. 2020;11:1132doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01132.
Schmitt, H. S., Sindermann, C., Li, M., Ma, Y., Kendrick, K. M., Becker, B., & Montag, C. (2020). The Dark Side of Emotion Recognition - Evidence From Cross-Cultural Research in Germany and China. Frontiers in psychology, 111132. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01132
Schmitt, Helena S, et al. "The Dark Side of Emotion Recognition - Evidence From Cross-Cultural Research in Germany and China." Frontiers in psychology vol. 11 (2020): 1132. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01132
Schmitt HS, Sindermann C, Li M, Ma Y, Kendrick KM, Becker B, Montag C. The Dark Side of Emotion Recognition - Evidence From Cross-Cultural Research in Germany and China. Front Psychol. 2020 Jul 09;11:1132. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01132. eCollection 2020. PMID: 32733302; PMCID: PMC7363803.
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Front Psychol. 2020 Jul 09;11:1132. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01132. eCollection 2020.

The Dark Side of Emotion Recognition - Evidence From Cross-Cultural Research in Germany and China.

Frontiers in psychology

Helena S Schmitt, Cornelia Sindermann, Mei Li, Yina Ma, Keith M Kendrick, Benjamin Becker, Christian Montag

Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
  2. Student Counseling Center, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, China.
  3. State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
  4. The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.

PMID: 32733302 PMCID: PMC7363803 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01132

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The dark triad of personality (DT) comprises three antisocial personality traits (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) that are characterized by callousness and the motive to elevate the self while derogating other people. Previous research indicates that the positive relationship between the DT traits and interpersonally deviant behaviors is especially pronounced at high levels of emotional abilities. This has also been referred to as dark Emotional Intelligence (EI). Since prior studies predominantly examined dark EI via trait-approach, the present study targeted at providing evidence for dark EI using a behavioral measure of EI, namely emotion recognition performance. In order to study the robustness and cross-cultural validity of findings, parallel investigations were conducted in Germany and China.

METHODS: A total of

RESULTS: Effects were highly gender- and culture-dependent. Among German females, Machiavellianism and narcissism showed the strongest positive associations with emotionally manipulative tactics at high levels of emotion recognition performance. A similar pattern of results was found among German males for psychopathy. None of the effects was observed in the Chinese female or male samples.

DISCUSSION: The present findings indicate that emotional abilities may constitute risk factors with the potential to promote rather than to prevent deviant behaviors especially in samples from Western cultures with pronounced scores on DT personality traits. Limitations and psychometric properties are discussed.

Copyright © 2020 Schmitt, Sindermann, Li, Ma, Kendrick, Becker and Montag.

Keywords: Emotional Manipulation; cross-cultural; dark EI; dark triad of personality; emotion recognition; reading the mind in the eyes test

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