| Summary: | In recent years, educational practitioners have become more aware of the importance of
cultivating students’ social and emotional skills, in order to facilitate adaptation beyond
academic contexts. Emotional intelligence (EI), the ability to regulate one’s own and
others’ emotions appropriately, has often been targeted in educational interventions.
Previous studies suggest that EI promotes various positive social outcomes such as social
support, prosocial behaviour, and subjective well-being. However, a growing body of
research has also shown that EI may sometimes lead to antisocial behaviours such as
indirect aggression and support for others’ retaliation, but this “darker side” of EI tends
to be overlooked. We argue that emotional intelligence without empathy can bring about
manipulative or aggressive behaviour, and highlight the need to explore further how EI
interacts with other personality traits in determining different social outcomes. This
review addresses both the “bright” and the “dark” side of EI, aiming to offer a
comprehensive, balanced perspective on its adaptive functions. Based on Reinforcement
Sensitivity Theory (RST), our paper proposes that there might be a common mechanism
by which EI links to both prosociality and aggression. Our analysis leads to the
conclusion that researchers need to elaborate on the motivational mechanism underlying
the behaviours of emotionally intelligent individuals, while teachers would be welladvised to pay attention to the motivations that support students’ socially adaptive
behaviours
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