Relationship Between Emotion Recognition Ability and Well-Being
One central focus of our research is to examine whether and under which conditions the ability to accurately recognize other people’s emotions contributes to psychological well-being. Our findings suggest that higher emotion recognition ability is not universally associated with greater well-being, but may relate to more stable affect and influence well-being through interpersonal and emotion-regulatory pathways. For example, accurately perceiving others’ emotions may facilitate social support, while certain coping or emotion-regulation tendencies can reduce or even reverse its potential benefits.
Our current work therefore focuses on identifying the mechanisms and individual differences that determine when being highly attuned to others’ emotions is beneficial (or potentially costly) for well-being. Specifically, we are currently working on a meta-analysis examining how emotion regulation/ emotion management abilities and styles interact with emotion recognition ability to predict well-being and other outcomes.
Collaborators: Elisabeth Germanier, Nils Sommer, Stéphane Côté
Selected relevant publications
Sommer, N. R., Carrard, V., Bourquin, C., Berney, A., & Schlegel, K. (2025). Social support and avoidance mediate positive and negative effects of emotion recognition ability on mental health in medical students. Scientific Reports, 15, 16910.
Sommer, N. R., & Schlegel, K. (2024). Beyond mean levels and linear relationships: The complex association between emotion recognition ability and well-being. Journal of Research in Personality, 109, 104467.
Schlegel, K., von Gugelberg, H. M., Makowski, L. M., Gubler, D. A., & Troche, S. J. (2021). Emotion recognition ability as a predictor of well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(7), 1380–1391.
Schlegel, K. (2020). Inter- and intrapersonal downsides of accurately perceiving others’ emotions. In R. J. Sternberg & A. Kostić (Eds.), Social Intelligence and Nonverbal Communication: The Adaptive Value of Communicating in a Social World (pp. 359–395). Palgrave Macmillan.