It works without words: a nonlinguistic ability test of perceiving emotions with job-related consequences

Published in: European Journal of Psychological Assessment – June 2021

Written by
Gerhard Blickle, Iris Kranefeld, Andreas Wihler, Bastian P. Kückelhaus and Jochen Menges

Summary

What we found: Recognizing what other people feel may not only be vital for everyday life but also for job performance. But many tools which assess someone’s ability to recognize the emotions of someone else rely heavily on people’s linguistic skills. In our study, we validated an alternative test for emotional recognition which does not rely on people’s linguistic skills – the Face-Based Emotion Matching Test (FEMT).

Why it matters: At work, many people do not speak their mother tongue. By providing a nonlinguistic test of emotional recognition, companies can assess the emotional recognition skills of people regardless of what language they may be speaking.

What next: Finding new employees with the right skill set can be challenging. Our tool can support organizations in their hiring process when positions demand certain emotional skills and therefore help organizations to select the right people more effectively.