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Hmmmm... thinking. Are workplaces actually measuring Emotional Intelligence (EI)... or just rewarding people who perform "neurotypical vibes"? Our new paper in the Journal of Applied Behavioural Science breaks down why style keeps trumping substance in modern leadership. Hi there @sagepub.com

The trap: Emotional capability (empathy, self-awareness, deep reasoning) can't be seen directly, so orgs rely on observable behaviours. Over time, "familiar expression" becomes indistinguishable from actual capability. If you don't express EI in the standard way, orgs assume you don't have it.

Neurodivergence exposes this gap BIG time. In classic thin-slice studies, observers rated autistic speakers worse on video, but when judging the same words on a written transcript, the bias vanished. Evaluating EI by delivery measures performative compliance, not actual emotional intelligence.