Emotional Intelligence as a Personality Trait That Predicts Consumption Behavior: The Role of Consumer Emotional Intelligence in Persuasive Communication

Abstract

While a significant number of studies have examined the effect of cognitive ability on social behaviors, researchers have devoted insufficient attention to emotional ability as a distinguishing individual characteristic that influences social behaviors. This study aims to address this critical gap by examining the specific role that consumer emotional intelligence (CEI) plays in the susceptibility to persuasive messages. Based on emotional intelligence and regulatory focus theories, an experiment was conducted to test CEI effect and its boundary conditions. The results demonstrate that people with high CEI are more likely to be persuaded by positive emotion-evoking ads than people with low CEI. Furthermore, the study found that this effect is more pronounced for promotion-focused (vs. prevention-focused) ad messages. These findings indicate that emotional intelligence is a meaningful individual trait to consider when predicting how people will respond to persuasive messages.