Emotional intelligence and individuals’ viewing behaviour of human faces: a predictive approach

Abstract

Abstract Although several studies have looked at the relationship between emotional characteristics and viewing behaviour, understanding how emotional intelligence (EI) contributes to individuals’ viewing behaviour is not clearly understood. This study examined the viewing behaviour of people (74 male and 80 female) with specific EI profiles while viewing five facial expressions. An eye-tracking methodology was employed to examine individuals’ viewing behaviour in relation to their EI. We compared the performance of different machine learning algorithms on the eye-movement parameters of participants to predict their EI profiles. The results revealed that EI profiles of individuals high in self-control, emotionality, and sociability responded differently to the visual stimuli. The prediction results of these EI profiles achieved 94.97% accuracy. The findings are unique in that they provide a new understanding of how eye-movements can be used in the prediction of EI. The findings also contribute to the current understanding of the relationship between EI and emotional expressions, thereby adding to an emerging stream of research that is of interest to researchers and psychologists in human–computer interaction, individual emotion, and information processing.