Emotional Intelligence and Risk Behaviour: A Risk Domain-Dependent Relationship

Abstract

Background: It is widely accepted that emotions exert a strong influence on risk decision-making. Despite this, the literature studying the role of emotional intelligence (EI) on the tendency to engage in risky behaviour is scarce, and the results appear to be inconclusive. The present study delves into the relationship between EI and risk behaviour through various risk contexts (Ethical, Health, Financial, Social, and Recreational domains). We also examined whether this relationship is age and gender-dependent. Method: A Spanish sample of 1435 participants (Mage = 29.84, from 18 to 70; 61.9% women) was assessed for levels of EI and risk-taking by the TMMS and DOSPERT scales. Results: The results revealed that EI was negatively related to risk behaviour in the Ethical and Health domains and positively related to the Social and Recreational domains. Moreover, we confirmed the influence of gender and age on both EI and risk behaviour. Conclusions: EI is differentially related to risk behaviour depending on the risk domain studied, supporting the idea that risk is a domain-specific construct. We suggest that higher levels of EI could be adaptive for risk behaviour regardless of the direction of the relationship. Practical implications and future lines of research are discussed.