Emotional Intelligence

Why do people with high IQs sometimes flounder while those of more modest intellect do surprisingly well? In this 1995 bestseller, psychologist and science journalist Daniel Goleman argues that much of the answer lies in a different set of capacities he calls emotional intelligence: self-awareness, impulse control, persistence, empathy, and social skill.

Drawing on brain and behavioral research, Goleman describes the interplay between the emotional and the rational mind — how the brain's alarm circuitry can stage an "emotional hijacking" that overrides reason — and marshals evidence that these emotional competencies matter at least as much as IQ for success in relationships, work, and health. Crucially, he argues, they are not fixed at birth but can be learned and strengthened.

The book's later sections turn to consequences and remedies: the costs of emotional illiteracy, from troubled marriages to aggression, and the case for teaching emotional skills to children. Emotional Intelligence popularized a concept that reshaped psychology, education, and management, and remains a landmark of accessible popular science.