Daniel Goleman (1996) Emotional Intelligence. Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.

Daniel Goleman on Emotional Intelligence

It’s been over two decades since the publication of Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, which coincided with a spike in populism and hatred of others centred around the divisive figure of Donald J. Trump around a decade ago.

Emotional Intelligence is empathy at work, which has never worked for Trump. Emotional self-awareness is a misnomer. At the memorial for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, whom he lauded as a hero on his Social Truth website (Social Lies website would be a better description) and asked about his feelings regarding the murder of the right-wing activist, Trump simply mentioned the death and then almost immediately changed the subject to boast about the country’s development, America’s current strength, and his own leadership achievements, which are, by his assessment, innumerable and underappreciated.

Narcissism is his strength. Love him or hate him. Both work and hate is far stronger than love.

For Golem the amygdala plays a key role in decision making. It controls the wash of emotions that surge through us and grew out of the primitive brain and made us human. Ancients might have called it the seat of the soul. If your soul is filled with hate and fear and loathing, as Trump exhibits, then you are a loathsome creature with poor impulse control. Examples jump out. Contradictory statements about kidnapping President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela or not starting a war in Iran, which was started by others, possible Israel, which denied it. America not needing allies’ help in the Strait of Hormuz, but calling for it as a test of loyalty to whom or what but himself? Threatening Iran with ‘its worst nightmare’ is for media consumption. The worst nightmare has already happened. It’s called President Trump.

Golem suggests emotions do not happen in isolation, but are contagious. Trump’s cunning lies in his ability to generate emotional contagion, not through insight or empathy, but through what psychologist Shelly Dar calls ‘narrative override’ and the repeated mantra of ‘fake news’. Framing opposition factually wrong (from the most lying President on record) and more importantly, emotionally. His rote assertions, for example, ‘we’re winning so much’ functions less as factual claim than as emotional anchoring. Repetition implants certainty in supporters and functions as alternative truth (lies). The 108-minute State of the Union address was ‘not accidental,’ or bombast. Dar notes—‘length itself becomes dominance’. Framing strength.

Former Presidential candidate, Senator Richard Russell Jr. (D–Georgia) who had much in common with Trump in thinking blacks inferior offered sage advice to Lyndon B. Johnson. The then Senate Majority Leader advised him to permit four-star General MacArthur’s address to be broadcast in full to the nation, despite the political risks, because blocking it would appear partisan and disrespectful to a national military hero, who had  himself Presidential ambitions-- and this was his dry run. Despite being a racist bigot Russell’s high-risk strategy was based on his reading of MacArthur and how he would sound to the nation as he rambled on for an extended period of time. He proved correct. Ironically, only short sound bites work for Trump for much the same reasons.  

    Trump’s lauded negotiation tactics are that of the school-yard bully. His threats regarding Greenland, tariffs, and military action function (‘madman’s leverage’)—hijacking the amygdala and inducing fear and anxiety in counterparties to extract concessions from other countries is a form of emotional contagion. The problem, Douthat warns, is that the rational side cannot contain the impulsive side indefinitely, especially when external constraints such as Congress weaken his self-image. Presidents that go to war have a free hand. No surprise that President Zelensky suggests the Third World War has already begun, we just don’t acknowledge it yet, as Trump threatens more reprisals for what God and the American President only know.

Least of all Iraq leaders, who are the latest in a long line of B-movie villains, expected to roll over and die. And then negotiate.

Self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills are what Daniel Golman calls the base markers of Emotional Intelligence. I’ll let you grade Donald J.Trump on any or all of these. Personally, I hate the draft dodging, paedophile, rapist, thieving, lying, cheating, and dumb abomination of a man. I might feel sorry for those Americans that hate him and his supporters as much as me. But I doubt it.  I’ve been emotionally contaminated. Phew, I feel a lot better getting that out of my system.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CVBVVGD6