A study by my colleague Marc Brackett examined affective forecasting ability and EI. Affective forecasting is the ability to accurately predict how you will feel about some future event. For example, consider how you will feel if a political candidate you support fails to win an election. We then come back after the election and ask you how you actually feel - affective forecasting is the match between your predicted and actual reaction.

Marc found that people scoring higher on EI as measured by the MSCEIT are better at affective forecasting. It’s a very interesting concept and one you can use yourself or in training. Considering what we call “emotional what-if’s” can be a very helpful exercise.