Gender differences in the relationship between emotional intelligence and right hemisphere lateralization for facial processing

The present study examined relationships between emotional intelligence, measured by the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, and right hemisphere dominance for a free vision chimeric face test. A sample of 122 ethnically diverse college students participated and completed online versions of the forenamed tests. A hierarchical regression was performed to test for the hypothesized interaction between gender and EI on the right hemisphere bias score. No significant main effects were found for gender or total EI score. However, when entered into the model, the interaction term contributed an additional 4.5% of the variance in right hemisphere dominance for the processing of facial emotions. Descriptively, men with greater EI were associated with higher right hemisphere dominance in the free vision test, while no association was observed for women.