SOCIAL
INTELLIGENCE
BY
Dr. Aehsan Ahmad Dar
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
SRM University AP
WHAT DOES SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE
MEAN?
You are aware of other people’s thoughts and feelings.
You understand why they do things.
Social Intelligence involves
• Interpreting others behavior in terms of their internal states
(mentalizing)
• Predicting how others will feel, think or behave
• Influencing others mental states and behaviour in goal-relevant
ways
• SI overlaps with emotional intelligence but is not the same.
SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE
• Social intelligence refers to a person’s ability to understand and
manage interpersonal relationships.
• It is distinct from a person’s IQ or “book smarts.”
• It includes an individual’s ability to understand, and act on, the
feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of other people.
• This type of intelligence can take place “in the moment” of face-to-
face conversations but also appears during times of deliberate
thinking. It involves emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE
• Examples of social intelligence include knowing when to talk or
listen, what to say, and what to do.
• Timing is a big part of social intelligence.
• For example, someone who is imperceptive, may tell a funny
joke – but at the wrong time, or not show enough interest when
meeting someone new.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
• Social intelligence helps individuals build relationships – and is
important to numerous aspects of a person’s life.
• It allows an individual to form friendships and alliances.
• And, it assists a person against being taken advantage of.
• People with social intelligence can “read” other people’s faces and
know what motivates them.
• Social intelligence builds over time and as a person ages.
• In this sense, it is similar to the character strength of perspective.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
• On a group level, social intelligence is what allows us to function
as humans.
• We are social beings and rely on each other’s cooperation.
• By understanding ourselves and other people, we can find ways
to collaborate for mutual benefit.
• Strong leaders often possess social intelligence in abundance.
• In order to motivate people, leaders must form relationships and
inspire others to want to do what needs to be done.
Social Intelligence as a Character
Strength
Individuals with this strength might be described as:
• Attuned
• Understanding
• Aware
• Empathetic
• Discerning
Thinking Patterns
Insightful Individuals with this strength are likely to think, feel, or
behave in the following ways:
• I understand other people and their emotions.
• I intuitively grasp what people want and why they want it.
• I understand my own thoughts, feelings, and motivations.
• I am skilled at getting people to cooperate with each other.
• I am able to understand power dynamics in social situations.
• I can always tell when someone is uncomfortable at a party.
Domains of social intelligence
• Individual recognition
• Emotion recognition
• Reciprocity, cooperation
• Hierarchy and status negotiation
• Ingroup/outgroup distinctions
• Empathy
• Inferring others mental states
• Language, conversation
Neurological and developmental
syndromes with social deficits
• Autism/Asperger’s Syndrome
• Orbitofrontal cortex damage from head trauma
• Frontotemporal dementia
• Bilateral amygdala damage
• Congenital cerebellum damage (Joubert Syndrome,
Dandy-Walker Syndrome)
• and many others
Orbitofrontal, medial lateral frontal cortex
Social deficits following orbitofrontal
damage
• Conversational pragmatics impaired
• Lack of turn-taking, poor use of relevance
• Poor use of common ground
• Verbally inappropriate
• Difficulty with nonverbal social cues
What happens when social intelligence
breaks down?
• Difficult for individual to hold a job
• Difficult to maintain relationships
• Family members feel misunderstood/frustrated
• Difficult for individual to maneuver successfully
in society
Social vulnerability
• Easily deceived
• Credulous
• Prey to falling for scams
Social vulnerability scale
• Greenspan Stone, 2001
• Ask care takers about individuals' gullibility
• Believes whatever he/she is told
• Falls for practical jokes
• Has been talked into giving something away that
he/she shouldn't have
• Ask care takers for examples of individual being taken
advantage of
How to measure social intelligence?
• Requires tests across multiple domains
• Tests of social inference
• Emotion recognition
• Ask family members/care takers
• Measuring gullibility?
Example of social inference test
• A faux pas occurs when someone says something awkward, hurtful or insulting to another
person, not realizing that they should not say it.
• Recognizing a faux pas requires both empathic understanding and belief attribution.
Example-1
• Jill had just moved into a new apartment.
• Jill went shopping and bought some new curtains for her
bedroom. When she had just finished decorating the apartment
her best friend, Lisa, came over.
• Oh, those curtains are horrible, Lisa said. I hope youre going to
get some new ones!
• Jill asked, How do you like the rest of my bedroom?
Example-2
• Tim was in a restaurant.
• He spilled some coffee on the floor by accident.
• Ill get you another cup of coffee, said the waiter.
• The waiter was gone for a while.
• Jack was another customer in the restaurant, standing by the
cashier waiting to pay.
• Tim went up to Jack and said, I spilled coffee over by my table.
Can you mop it up?
QUOTES ON SOCIAL
INTELLIGENCE
• “The single most important lesson I learned in 25 years of talking every
single day to people, was that there’s a common denominator in our
human experience. The common denominator I found in every single
interview is we want to be validated. We want to be understood.”
-OPRAH WINFREY
• “When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking
what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.”
-ABRAHAM LINCOLN
• “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
-ERNEST HEMINGWAY
