Does emotional intelligence stop us from being rude? Here's what the science says

Phys · May 19, 2026 · 1113 words · By Irini Mavrou; Nicola McNab

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What to know about Does emotional intelligence stop us from being rude? Here's what the science says

The article discusses a 2025 study on how bilingual individuals respond to workplace impoliteness, finding that momentary mood and sociability are stronger predictors of reactions than general emotional intelligence. It also notes that responses remained consistent across both the participants' first and second languages.

Propaganda risk 0%

Claims checked 8

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center75%

Right25%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Does emotional intelligence stop us from being rude?

Why it matters

Here's what the science says Gaby Clark Scientific Editor Andrew Zinin Lead Editor We often assume that how we respond to a rude comment says something stable about us: our personality, our culture, even the language we are speaking.

Common ground

If someone reacts calmly, we presume they are a patient person.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Does emotional intelligence stop us from being rude? Here's what the science says?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Less sociable participants were more likely to stay silent in the face of impoliteness, whereas more sociable ones tended to respond, often assertively?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-emotional-intelligence-rude-science.html

analyticsAnalysis

Propaganda Score

confidence: 100%

Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 8 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

info Single Source 6

verified Verified By Reference 2

info

Claim 1: “Less sociable participants were more likely to stay silent in the face of impoliteness, whereas more sociable ones tended to respond, often assertively.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence consists of dictionary definitions for the word 'lower' and a college homepage, none of which provide data on sociability and assertive responses.

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web search NEUTRAL — The meaning of LOWER is to look sullen : frown. How to use lower in a sentence.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lower

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web search NEUTRAL — Lower Columbia College is an accredited, public, two-year community and technical college offering associate and bachelor's degrees, certificates, workforce training, continuing and community educatio…
https://lowercolumbia.edu/

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web search NEUTRAL — LOWER meaning: 1. to move something into a low position: 2. to reduce something: 3. to make something worse than…. Learn more.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/lower

verified

Claim 2: “In our 2025 study, published in the Journal of Pragmatics, we explored how bilingual people respond to workplace impoliteness.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

While Wikipedia confirms the existence of the 'Journal of Pragmatics', the provided web search results are generic (Study.com, library reservations) and do not mention a specific 2025 study on bilingual workplace impoliteness.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Journal of Pragmatics is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the linguistic subfield of pragmatics. It was established in 1977 by Jacob L. Mey (at that time Odense University) and Ha…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Pragmatics

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — In linguistics and the philosophy of language, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as wel…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatics

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Pragmatics is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of pragmatics, a subfield of linguistics. It was established in 1991 and is published by John Benjamins Publishing Company o…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatics_(journal)

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 3: “Participants in a negative mood produced more offensive counter-attacks, while those in a positive mood showed greater acceptance of impoliteness.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence provides general definitions of 'mood' and 'impoliteness strategies', but does not confirm the specific correlation between negative mood and offensive counter-attacks or positive mood and acceptance in the context of the cited study.

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web search NEUTRAL — In psychology, a mood is an affective state. In contrast to emotions or feelings, moods are less specific, less intense and less likely to be provoked or instantiated by a particular stimulus or event…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mood_(psychology)

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web search NEUTRAL — Negative impoliteness is the most dominant type of impoliteness strategy, while positive impoliteness is the least strategy to occur in this research. The impoliteness strategies were linguistically r…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248452204_Impoliten…

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web search NEUTRAL — increase in positive testing under positive mood when the context fosters the goal to get along as compared to when the goal is less salient.
https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/28643/1/DDGS_ejsp_11_p…

info

Claim 4: “While overall emotional intelligence did not predict responses, one facet did: sociability.”

SINGLE SOURCE

One specific PDF result ('Agency, accountability and evaluations of impoliteness...') explicitly mentions that 'Sociability, a facet of EI, appeared to influence responses to impoliteness'. This is the only relevant source found.

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web search NEUTRAL — High emotional intelligence includes emotional recognition of emotions of the self and others, using emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, discerning between and labelling different fe…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_intelligence

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web search NEUTRAL — Sometimes emotions don’t make sense, and sometimes being emotional doesn’t mean you're emotionally intelligent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6_J7FfgWVc

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web search NEUTRAL — How we are versus how we are feeling: The role of emotional intelligence and mood in reactions to impoliteness in L1 and L2.Sociability, a facet of EI, appeared to inﬂuence responses to impoliteness, …
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289537134_Agency_ac…

verified

Claim 5: “We worked with 104 Spanish-English bilinguals.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The evidence provided contains irrelevant mentions of the number 104 (Spanish elections and newspapers) but no mention of a study involving 104 Spanish-English bilinguals.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — General elections were held in Spain on 29 September 1971 where Spanish citizens elected 104 of the 564 members of the Cortes Españolas, the Spanish legislature.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Spanish_general_election

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This list of newspapers in Spain includes daily, weekly Spanish newspapers issued in Spain. In 1950 the number of daily newspapers in circulation in Spain was 104; by 1965 this figure had fallen to 87…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_Spain

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The identity of the longest word in English depends on the definition of "word" and of length. Words may be derived naturally from the language's roots or formed by coinage and construction. Additiona…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_word_in_English

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 6: “responses were strikingly similar in both languages [Spanish and English].”

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence provided consists of general information about the Spanish language and translation tools, with no mention of the study's findings regarding language similarity in responses.

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web search NEUTRAL — Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance language group, in which the language is also known as Castilian (castellano). The group evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language

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web search NEUTRAL — Our Spanish-English translator and dictionary provide not only translations but also conjugations, pronunciations, and examples. Our team of passionate, dedicated language experts is on a mission to t…
https://www.spanishdict.com/

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web search NEUTRAL — Free Spanish for Beginners, easy Spanish lessons and exercises-- The alphabet, how to say hello, numbers, directions, days / months / seasons.
https://www.spanishboat.com/beginners-spanish-lessons/

info

Claim 7: “There were no significant correlations between overall emotional intelligence scores and the types of responses participants produced.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The web search results provided for this claim are about a music album ('Ship of Fools' by Tuxedomoon) and are completely irrelevant to emotional intelligence or impoliteness.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Reviews Ratings Likes Sort Coiltechre Advertisement Hide Ads Best Songs of 2025 Go Ad-Free ALBUMS Highest Rated Must Hear Albums Year End Lists New Releases Random ...
https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/331084-tuxedomoon-ship-…

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web search NEUTRAL — Reviews Ratings Likes In Library Sort googooboy2k Advertisement June Playlist Go Ad-Free ALBUMS Highest Rated Lowest Rated Recently Rated Year End Lists New Releases ...
https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/331084-tuxedomoon-ship-…

info

Claim 8: “all participants had an upper-intermediate and above proficiency level in English”

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence provided consists solely of dictionary definitions for the word 'all' and does not contain any information about the proficiency levels of study participants.

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web search NEUTRAL — 4 days ago · The meaning of ALL is the whole amount, quantity, or extent of. How to use all in a sentence. Synonym Discussion of All.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/all

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web search NEUTRAL — All means ‘every one’, ‘the complete number or amount’ or ‘the whole’. We use it most often as a determiner. We can use a countable noun or an uncountable noun after it: … When all refers to a whole c…
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/all

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web search NEUTRAL — You use all to refer to a situation or to life in general. All is silent on the island now. As you'll have read in our news pages, all has not been well of late.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/all

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.