Why it is difficult for scientists to have high EQs

A student asked me this Q recently:  Do scientists have low EQs?

Krishna: Emotional Quotients?

But do you know according to some psychologists this EQ thing doesn't exist?

Anyway, people think scientists have very high IQs. They also think this would make them have low EQs as both are considered as contradictory. Let us now analyse and see whether this is true.

Emotionally intelligent people engage in a number of habits and behaviours that contribute to their ability to manage their own emotions and understand the feelings of others.

Scientists are told and trained to keep emotions at bay while entering their labs because they interfere with Critical thinking skills. So they can manage their own emotions while in the lab. 

Emotional Intelligence involves four major skills:

• The ability to perceive emotions
• The ability to reason with emotions
• The ability to understand emotions
• The ability to manage emotions.

These are the features of Emotionally Intelligent  people...

1. Emotionally intelligent people pay attention to what they are feeling.
2. They understand how other people feel.
3. They are able to regulate their emotions.
4. They are motivated.
5. They have great social skills
6. They are willing and able to discuss feelings with others.
7. They are able to correctly identify the underlying causes of their emotions.

Scientists can do four of the above mentioned things very well - 1, 3, 4, and 7. This is the lab phase of EI. In other words they can filter out what is bad while conducting research and dealing with certitude.

Rest of the things are important outside the labs, i.e., while communicating their work - 2, 5 and 6. This is the public phase.

It is difficult to transform from one phase to the other. When you are trained to be like a scientist, you cannot act like a good orator or actor with high social skills to connect with people. Can you reduce your critical thinking abilities and downsize your facts or manipulate numbers to give ground to others?  No, you cannot do that in science! 

If others feel bad about you mentioning a fact what can you do about it? 

There are two options for EI to succeed here: 1. Don't mention facts because that will shock others and cause distress to them  and keep people in the state of ignorance forever ( it seems Copernicus tried to do this out of fear).

2. Mention it in the way they want - i.e., reduce the effect of truth to fit into their belief system ( some scientists do this while conducting research on topics like near death experiences, souls, after life etc. but these scientists enter into a pseudo-science arena to do this) .

A true scientist cannot do both!

Yes, we can understand how others  feel about facts we brought before them - yes, we can be  empathetic.  We can use mild words. But cannot deviate from  reality even a millimeter  to make others accept it! That is why people of religion, politics and artists can succeed more than scientists when emotions of people are involved. Because others can effortlessly play with emotions by manipulating truth and reducing them to either half-truths or lies.

But how can a scientist respond in an EI way when  a  person is upset or frustrated with what s/he says?  

How can you express a fact appropriately? Oh, yes you can smile, put your hand on the other person's shoulder caringly, request him/her not to get annoyed and think about what you you say with a cool mind but... yes, there will be 'buts' here ... you have to tell the person the shocking part of it which might undo everything you did before telling him/her that! 

No amount of sugar coating will take away the bitterness of raw facts when people's minds are still lodged in ancient times! This is the fact I realized while dealing with EI when tackling pseudo-science and other absurdities.

They say it is important to have a high  EQ to be happy around people and have good relations with them. And high IQ to succeed in research! In the field of science communication, it seems, you are dead if you don't have a good EQ! That is why the field of Science Communication  looks like a grave yard most of the time!

Hmm, my dear friends,  we deal with high IQs, and medium  EQs in science.

You can analyse the situation and feelings of others but ... yes another ' but' here ... can you ask for forgiveness or apologize for mentioning the facts to maintain good equations with them? Or ask the person to forget what you say? How silly that looks!

Isn't it  important for people around a scientist to have high EQs too to understand a scientific point of view and facts?

Can you imagine  an 'otherwise'?

'Otherwise' we will have to deal with wars! 

Yes, I am very familiar with these conflict zones.

I frequently tread on dangerous arenas!

Scientists always live on the edges

Because they have EQ limitations! 

Want Proof? Revisit places where these people fight

Evolutionists Vs Creationists

Microbiologists Vs antivexers

Geneticists Vs anti-GM activists

Climatologists Vs AGW skeptics

Scientists Vs people who propagate pseudo-science

Scientists Vs Religious heads

And see for yourself how the general public behaves! You will understand why EQ has the upper hand.

Think about Galileo and other earlier scientists who faced the wrath of societies they lived in because they dealt with facts!

Time hasn't changed much. It is extremely difficult to deal with both IQ and EQ at the same time.

No wonder irrationality still rules the world. I want to add a real life example here:

Recently one person asked a question on a site* discussion: Do pet animals realize if their owner is pregnant?

Now notice the difference between the answer of a layman who used emotional quotient to get attracted and my answer which strictly adheres to facts and IQ.

Layman's answer: 

When my wife missed her cycle, a pregnancy test was conducted on the same day.

A week before that, my dog started acting like a looney toon getting extra happy and funny and rolling on the floor and demanding a belly rub from us both. He used to sleep on his bed but the entire week, he started sleeping between us and cuddling us like a baby and licking our cheeks to his satisfaction. He was acting like a kid not eating his pedigree until he’s hand fed at least the first scoop. We were surprised at this overnight change in his behaviour.

My wife was worried about her missed cycle and we did a pregnancy test and VOILA!!! We are officially parents. The joy was beyond imagination and even before we knew our son (dog) knew it and he was over protective about us acting like a possessed being. He realised that we discovered the secret and since that day he was very protective.

March 24, 2009, sharp 3:00AM, my mom in law called up when we were in the hospital and said that all of a sudden my dog woke up and started going nuts running around very playfully and woke her up. The moment she said this, I shared the news with her about the birth of our daughter, sorry his new born sister. Brought her home after a couple of days and since then he never left her side till his last breath. So my baby knew about his sister!

This answer had about 20,000 views, because it was shared over and over again! It also got 1500 up votes. People who read it really loved it!

My (Krishna's) answer:  

People tell strange stories, don't they?

What people here said is anecdotal and just their interpretations of the situation, not reality.

Yes, dogs can sense hormonal (chemical) changes that occur in a pregnant lady because of altered scent. But they really don’t know the science behind pregnancy. Therefore, they cannot realize their owner is pregnant. Sensing the change in odour is not sensing pregnancy. Get that right first.

If pregnancy related hormonal changes has you riding the emotional roller coaster, your dog is probably noticing it too. But It really cannot phantom the reason for it. It might change its response to your behaviour.

Any positive behavioural changes you say happen is just your wishful thinking, strange perception and attributing your thoughts to dogs and other pets! That’s all!

I just got 50 views and 2 upvotes for my answer. 

No, I am not complaining. Emotions rule the world. We know that very well. Eventhough the story told by the layman was 'made up' ( it can't be true), it attracted people because of the emotions involved with a pet dog,  his 'understanding and prediction' of pregnancy of its owner and birth of a child, strange interpretations of love and understanding.

'Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story', is the mantra followed by these people.

My raw truth didn't attract people at all even though that is a science based fact which is 100% correct. 

Now tell me how can I deviate from the truth and tell a made up story like the layman did? How can I mislead the world like this person did to get appreciation?  I can't! I can't!! I can't!!!

Because Science doesn't allow it! 

All that I can say is, 'World, please come to your senses!' 

AND this is really important:  

"There is no such thing as EQ", according to psychologists! Find out why here: https://www.quora.com/What-is-more-beneficial-in-all-aspects-of-lif...

Now if you create something or imagine a social skill and say scientists are not good at it?! Uff, I am relieved!

Update:

When a friend or colleague feels sad, angry or surprised, reacting the same way is key to getting along with others. But a new study suggests that a knack for eavesdropping on feelings may sometimes come with an extra dose of stress. This and other research challenge the prevailing view that emotional intelligence is uniformly beneficial to its bearer.

In a study published in the September 2016 issue of Emotion, psychologists Myriam Bechtoldt and Vanessa Schneider of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management in Germany asked 166 male university students a series of questions to measure their emotional smarts. For example, they showed the students photographs of people's faces and asked them to what extent feelings such as happiness or disgust were being expressed. The students then had to give job talks in front of judges displaying stern facial expressions. The scientists measured concentrations of the stress hormone cortisol in the students' saliva before and after the talk.

In students who were rated more emotionally intelligent, the stress measures increased more during the experiment and took longer to go back to baseline. The findings suggest that some people may be too emotionally astute for their own good, according to experts. Sometimes you can be so good at something that it causes trouble.

The study adds to previous research hinting at a dark side of emotional intelligence. A study published in 2002 in Personality and Individual Differences suggested that emotionally perceptive people might be particularly susceptible to feelings of depression and hopelessness. Furthermore, several studies, including one published in 2013 in PLOS ONE, have implied that emotional intelligence can be used to manipulate others for personal gain.

Emotional intelligence is a useful skill to have, as long as you learn to also properly cope with emotions—both others' and your own. Some sensitive individuals may assume responsibility for other people's sadness or anger, which ultimately stresses them out. They forget that they are not responsible for how other people feel.

Yes, too much of EI is bad too!