This paper questions if the very popular construct of emotional intelligence (EI) in professional psychological practice, communication, and media, is sufficiently psychometrically validated, and to what extent it differs from the combination of long-established constructs of social intelligence (SI) and metacognition. All definitions of EI, those that define it as an ability, as well as those in questionnaire format, contain concepts that can easily be recognized as facets of SI, and forms of metacognition. Therefore, a more comprehensive definition of emotional intelligence is proposed, one that includes social intelligence and some metacognitive aspects: emotional intelligence is the ability to accurately assess feelings, moods and motivations of oneself and other people to achieve pleasant social relationships and one’s own well-being. In other words, what is considered emotional intelligence today is actually a construct that has interacting characteristics of good social intelligence and metacognition. However, considering how much media attention, as well as the attention of psychologists, communication specialists, psychiatrists and similar experts that construct has received, it will probably continue to survive under its name.

emotional intelligence, media, metacognition, social intelligence, theory of mind