High EI may make young women manipulative

If you feel your girlfriend often manipulates her way to win the situation, partly blame evolution for such behaviour and seek proper guidance.

According to a recent study, young women with high emotional intelligence (EI) are more likely to use manipulative behaviours, resulting in a greater engagement in delinquency.

“I would hypothesise that it’s partly due to evolution. In some circumstances, young women may have come to see social survival as more important than social necessities so manipulation may have been an adaptive behaviour which has continued through to the present day,” explained lead researcher Alison Bacon from University of Plymouth in Britain.

The research team wanted to assess why young women with high levels of EI are more likely to engage in anti-social behaviour than young men. 

The participants in the study answered standard questions on how they adapt their behaviour depending on, or to affect, the emotions of others.

High EI women also presented higher levels of Machiavellian tactics and delinquency — both in literal delinquent behaviours and in relationships such as social exclusion or coercion.