Influences of emotional intelligence on perceptions of trustworthiness

Abstract

By adopting social exchange theory and the affect-infusion-model, we hypothesized that emotional intelligence (EI) would have an impact on three perceptions of trustworthiness – ability, integrity and benevolence – at the beginning of a relationship. We also hypothesized that additional information would gradually displace EI in forming the above perceptions. Our experimental results do not support the hypotheses that EI has an impact on the perceptions at the beginning of a relationship. However, they support the hypothesis that additional information is significant in forming the perceptions of ability and integrity but not of benevolence. Results also suggest that EI could significantly, yet negatively, affect the perception of benevolence when additional information is revealed. Practical implications, limitations, and future research are then discussed