The Origins of Emotional Intelligence

In 1990, Peter Salovey and John Mayer published a landmark paper, “Emotional Intelligence,” in a little-known journal (after it was rejected by multiple top-tier publications). That article has since served as the academic foundation for most research into emotional intelligence. In it, they asserted that the majority of life tasks are influenced by emotion. We all have emotion skills, the authors wrote, but to varying degrees. And we can all increase our emotional intelligence, which Salovey and Mayer defined as the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and…