Towards understanding the low correlation between subjective and performance-based measures of emotion perception: Is one measure better than the other?

This study examined the construct validity of performance-based emotion recognition tests. We recruited 227 adults (30-60 years old) through Prolific to complete four emotion recognition tasks in addition to measures of self-reported emotion recognition, crystallized intelligence, social confidence, loneliness/well-being, interest in people versus things, and reading enjoyment (all measured with at least two indicators). Consistent with previous research, objective emotion recognition tasks were positively correlated and formed a separate cluster. This cluster correlated with crystallized intelligence but not with self-reported emotion recognition, loneliness/well-being, interest in people vs. things, or reading pleasure. Interestingly, there appeared to be a negative correlation with social self-confidence, suggesting that people who performed well on emotion recognition tasks had less social self-confidence. This is consistent with the possibility that hypersensitivity to social cues may have disadvantages. Conversely, self-reported skill in recognizing emotions correlated highly with social self-confidence and loneliness/well-being, at least in a context where no clear advantage existed for specific response patterns. Overall, our findings suggest that the objective tests primarily assessed intelligence rather than broader social-emotional functioning. In brief, this study highlights the importance of selecting appropriate measures when evaluating individuals’ emotional intelligence.