Affective forecasting ability : individual differences in emotional intelligence and prosocial behaviour

Abstract

Affective forecasting is the process of predicting how future events will influence our future emotional state, studies demonstrate we are not effective in this process. Recently research has begun to examine individual differences in Affective Forecasting. The aim of the current study was to make a theoretical contribution to this emerging literature by examining the role of Prosocial Personality and Emotional Intelligence in Affective Forecasting while accounting for the individual differences in relation to gender. 150 participants took part in an online survey where a mixed quasi-experimental correlational design was employed. Emotional Intelligence and Prosocial Personality were hypothesised to be associated with affective forecasting accuracy on an affective forecasting task involving negative emotionally-evocative pictures. Results failed to support this hypothesis, however a significant relationship was found between Prosocial Personality and Emotional Intelligence which supports previous research. No gender differences were observed in relation to any of the variables. Author keywords: Affective forecasting, emotional intelligence, prosocial behaviour