Not Everything Is Intelligence: The Feel-Good Fraud of Emotional IQ
Somewhere along the line, we decided everyone needed to be smart—just in “different ways.” It wasn’t enough to admire the emotionally supportive friend, the empathetic boss, or the skilled communicator for what they were: emotionally attuned, socially skilled, or just really good with people. No—we had to call them intelligent. And so was born the phrase emotional intelligence, or EQ. But here’s the problem: emotional intelligence isn’t intelligence. It’s a category error dressed up in flattery. And the more we inflate the definition of intelligence to include feelings, vibes, or social maneuvers, the less the word means anything at all. ...