Gender differences in emotional intelligence: the mediating effect of age

Are women more emotionally intelligent than men? Today it is widely believed, among the general public and academics alike, that the female gender is linked with better knowledge of emotions. Is this notion correct or yet another stereotype? To address this question, the relationship between gender and emotional intelligence (EI), as assessed using the “Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test” (MSCEIT), is considered. A new perspective was taken in this research by controlling for age, which is one of the principal sociodemographic characteristics that interacts with gender as well as EI, in order to clarify how gender affects EI. Results showed that the gender differences initially reported for EI are mediated completely by age for the branches of facilitation and understanding, for strategic area and for total score, and partially by age for the dimension of emotional managing. These findings indicate the need for caution when concluding that gender affects EI in the absence of tests for possible interactions between gender and other variables that may influence EI.