Social intelligence
Encyclopedia
Social intelligence describes the exclusively human capacity to use very large brains to effectively navigate and negotiate complex social relationships and environments.
Psychologist and professor at the London School of Economics Nicholas Humphrey
believes it is social intelligence or the richness of our qualitative life, rather than our quantitative intelligence, that truly makes humans what they are – for example what it's like to be a human being living at the centre of the conscious present, surrounded by smells and tastes and feels and the sense of being an extraordinary metaphysical entity with properties which hardly seem to belong to the physical world. Social scientist Ross Honeywill
believes social intelligence is an aggregated measure of self and social awareness, evolved social beliefs and attitudes, and a capacity and appetite to manage complex social change. A person with a high social intelligence quotient (SQ) is no better or worse than someone with a low SQ, they just have different attitudes, hopes, interests and desires.
Social intelligence according to the original definition of Edward Thorndike, is "the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls, to act wisely in human relations". It is equivalent to interpersonal intelligence, one of the types of intelligences identified in Howard Gardner's Theory of multiple intelligences, and closely related to theory of mind. Some authors have restricted the definition to deal only with knowledge of social situations, perhaps more properly called social cognition or social marketing intelligence, as it pertains to trending socio-psychological advertising and marketing strategies and tactics. According to Sean Foleno, Social intelligence is a person’s competence to comprehend his or her environment optimally and react appropriately for socially successful conduct.
’s theory that intelligence is not a fixed attribute but a complex hierarchy of information-processing skills underlying an adaptive equilibrium between the individual and the environment. An individual can therefore change their SQ by altering their attitudes and behaviour in response to their complex social environment.
It was the demands of living together that drove our need for intelligence. This idea is called the ‘Social Intelligence Hypothesis’.
Professor of early history at Reading University, Steve Mithen, believes there are two key periods of brain expansion that contextualize the social intelligence hypothesis. The first was around two million years ago when brains expanded by about 50%. So humans went from brain size of around 450cc to a brain size of around 1,000cc by 1.8 million years ago.
Archaeologists noting this change in primates asked; why are brains getting larger and what is it providing? Brains wouldn't get larger just for any reasons because brain tissue is metabolically very expensive, so has to be serving an important purpose. Mithen believes the social intelligence hypothesis suggests the expansion of brain size around two million years ago was because people were living in larger groups, more complex groups, having to keep track of different people, a larger number of social relationships that required a larger brain to do so. Social intelligence therefore gives us the answer to that first expansion of brain size two million years ago.
The second increase in brain size happened between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, and during that period the brain reached its modern capacity. Trying to explain that second expansion in brain size is still a very challenging question. Mithen’s view is that it is directly related to the evolution of language. Language is probably the most complex cognitive task we undertake. Language is directly related to social intelligence because we mainly use language to mediate our social relationships.
So social intelligence was a critical factor in the expansions of brain size – there is a co-evolution between social and cognitive complexity. And today social intelligence is pivotal in managing the complexity of being social animals.
Both Nicholas Humphrey
and Ross Honeywill
believe it is social intelligence or the richness of our qualitative life rather than our quantitative intelligence that truly makes humans what they are – for example what it's like to be a human being living at the centre of the conscious present, surrounded by smells and tastes and feels and the sense of being an extraordinary metaphysical entity with properties which hardly seem to belong to the physical world. This is social intelligence.
and emotional intelligence
, and can also be seen as a first level in developing systems intelligence
.
Research psychologists studying social cognition and social neuroscience
have discovered many principles which human social intelligence operates. In early work on this topic, psychologists Nancy Cantor
and John Kihlstrom outlined the kinds of concepts people use to make sense of their social relations (e.g., “What situation am I in and what kind of person is this who is talking to me?”), and the rules they use to draw inferences (“What did he mean by that?”) and plan actions (“What am I going to do about it?”)
More recently, popular science writer Daniel Goleman
has drawn on social neuroscience
research to propose that social intelligence is made up of social awareness (including empathy
, attunement, empathic accuracy
, and social cognition
) and social facility (including synchrony, self-presentation, influence, and concern). Goleman’s immense research indicates that our social relationships have a direct effect on our physical health and the deeper the relationship the deeper the impact. Goleman states that some physical effects of our relationships upon our health are the blood flow of one’s body, one's breathing, one's mood (such as fatigue and depression), and even decreased power of one's immune system.
Educational researcher Raymond H. Hartjen asserts that expanded opportunities for social interaction enhances intelligence.Traditional classrooms do not permit the interaction of complex social behavior. Instead children in traditional settings are treated as learners who must be infused with more and more complex forms of information. Few educational leaders he adduces have taken this position as a starting point to develop a school environment where social interaction could flourish.If we follow this line of thinking then children must have an opportunity for continuous every day interpersonal experiences in order to develop a keen well developed 'inter-personal psychology'.As schools are structured today very few of these skills, critical for survival in the real world, are allowed to develop. Because we so limit the development of the skills of "natural psychologist" in traditional schools our students as graduates, enter the job market handicapped to the point of being incapable of surviving on their own.In contrast those students that have had an ability to develop their skills as a "natural psychologist" in multiage classrooms and at democratic settings rise head and shoulders over their less socially skilled peers. They have a good sense of self, know what they want out of life and have the skills necessary to begin their quest.
The issue here is psychology versus social intelligence—as a separate and distinct perspective, seldom if ever articulated. An appropriate introduction contains certain hypothetical assumptions about social structure and function, as it relates to intelligence defined and expressed by groups, constrained by cultural expectations that assert potential realities, but make no claims or assertions that there is an "exterior" social truth to be defined and mapped—this perspective pursues the view that social structures can be defined with the admonition that what is mapped into the structure and how that information is stored, retrieved, and decided upon are variable, but can be contained in an abstract and formal grammar—a sort of game of definitions and rules that permit and project an evolving intelligence.
Two halves of the coin: one half psychology; the other half social. Unfortunately, most references to social intelligence relate to an individual's social skills. Not mentioned, and more important, is how social intelligence (speaking of a group or assembly of groups) processes information about the world and shares it with participants in the group(s). Are there social structures or can they be designed to accumulate and reveal information to the individual or to other groups. Some social structures are obviously pathological: recently I came across a statement that describes a government as a pathocracy, run by sociopaths.
The bigger question is how groups and societies map the environment (both ecological, social, and personal) into a social structure. How is that structure able to contain a worldview and to reveal that view to the participants? How are decisions made?
SQ has until recently been measured by techniques such as question and answer sessions. These sessions assess the person's pragmatic
abilities to test eligibility
in certain special education courses, however some tests have been developed to measure social intelligence. One of these is the EQ (Emotional Intelligence
) test. This test can be used when diagnosing autism spectrum disorders, including autism
and Asperger syndrome
. Other, non-autistic or semi-autistic conditions such as semantic pragmatic disorder
or SPD, schizophrenia
, dyssemia
and ADHD, are also of relevance. This test can also be used when assessing people that might have some sort of a disorder such as schizophrenia
or ADHD.
People with low SQ are more suited to low customer contact roles, since they may not have the required interpersonal communication and social skills for success on the frontline.These people may work better in an occupation that limits social interaction. People with SQs over 120 are considered socially skilled, and may work well with jobs that involve direct contact and communication with other people.
The following example chart shows (assuming a person aged 17 is being tested, with an average SQ of 100 for that age) how a person's social age can be higher or lower based on scores in the SQ test:
Psychologist and professor at the London School of Economics Nicholas Humphrey
Nicholas Humphrey
Professor Nicholas Keynes Humphrey is an English psychologist, based in Cambridge, who is known for his work on the evolution of human intelligence and consciousness. His interests are wide ranging...
believes it is social intelligence or the richness of our qualitative life, rather than our quantitative intelligence, that truly makes humans what they are – for example what it's like to be a human being living at the centre of the conscious present, surrounded by smells and tastes and feels and the sense of being an extraordinary metaphysical entity with properties which hardly seem to belong to the physical world. Social scientist Ross Honeywill
Ross Honeywill
Ross Honeywill is a social scientist and internationally published author.Honeywill specializes in social research and the understanding and application of social theory...
believes social intelligence is an aggregated measure of self and social awareness, evolved social beliefs and attitudes, and a capacity and appetite to manage complex social change. A person with a high social intelligence quotient (SQ) is no better or worse than someone with a low SQ, they just have different attitudes, hopes, interests and desires.
Social intelligence according to the original definition of Edward Thorndike, is "the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls, to act wisely in human relations". It is equivalent to interpersonal intelligence, one of the types of intelligences identified in Howard Gardner's Theory of multiple intelligences, and closely related to theory of mind. Some authors have restricted the definition to deal only with knowledge of social situations, perhaps more properly called social cognition or social marketing intelligence, as it pertains to trending socio-psychological advertising and marketing strategies and tactics. According to Sean Foleno, Social intelligence is a person’s competence to comprehend his or her environment optimally and react appropriately for socially successful conduct.
Social Intelligence Quotient (SQ)
The social intelligence quotient or SQ is a statistical abstraction similar to the ‘standard score’ approach used in IQ tests with a mean of 100. Unlike the standard IQ test however it is not a fixed model. It leans more to PiagetPiaget
Piaget is surname of:* Edouard Piaget , Swiss entomologist* Jean Piaget , Swiss developmental psychologist* Paul Piaget , a Swiss rower...
’s theory that intelligence is not a fixed attribute but a complex hierarchy of information-processing skills underlying an adaptive equilibrium between the individual and the environment. An individual can therefore change their SQ by altering their attitudes and behaviour in response to their complex social environment.
Social Intelligence Hypothesis
The ‘Social Intelligence Hypothesis’ in science asserts that complex socialization – politics, romance, family relationships, quarrels, making-up, collaboration, reciprocity, altruism – in short, social intelligence (1) was the driving force in developing the size of human brains and (2) today provides our ability to use those large brains in complex social circumstances.It was the demands of living together that drove our need for intelligence. This idea is called the ‘Social Intelligence Hypothesis’.
Professor of early history at Reading University, Steve Mithen, believes there are two key periods of brain expansion that contextualize the social intelligence hypothesis. The first was around two million years ago when brains expanded by about 50%. So humans went from brain size of around 450cc to a brain size of around 1,000cc by 1.8 million years ago.
Archaeologists noting this change in primates asked; why are brains getting larger and what is it providing? Brains wouldn't get larger just for any reasons because brain tissue is metabolically very expensive, so has to be serving an important purpose. Mithen believes the social intelligence hypothesis suggests the expansion of brain size around two million years ago was because people were living in larger groups, more complex groups, having to keep track of different people, a larger number of social relationships that required a larger brain to do so. Social intelligence therefore gives us the answer to that first expansion of brain size two million years ago.
The second increase in brain size happened between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, and during that period the brain reached its modern capacity. Trying to explain that second expansion in brain size is still a very challenging question. Mithen’s view is that it is directly related to the evolution of language. Language is probably the most complex cognitive task we undertake. Language is directly related to social intelligence because we mainly use language to mediate our social relationships.
So social intelligence was a critical factor in the expansions of brain size – there is a co-evolution between social and cognitive complexity. And today social intelligence is pivotal in managing the complexity of being social animals.
How is Intelligence Different to Social Intelligence
It’s not enough just to be clever according to Professor Nicholas Humphrey. Autistic children, for example, are sometimes extremely clever. They're very good at making observations and remembering it all. However, it is argued they have low social intelligence. Chimpanzees are very clever at the level of being able to make observations and remember things. They can remember better than humans can, but they, again, are inept at handling interpersonal relationships. So something else is needed. What is needed is a theory of mind, a theory of how other people work from the inside. For a long time the field was dominated by so-called behaviourism. Scientists thought they could understand human beings, rats, pigeons, just by watching what goes on, writing it all down, doing correlations and so on. It turns out you can't. It has to be thought about in terms of the inner structure behaviour.Both Nicholas Humphrey
Nicholas Humphrey
Professor Nicholas Keynes Humphrey is an English psychologist, based in Cambridge, who is known for his work on the evolution of human intelligence and consciousness. His interests are wide ranging...
and Ross Honeywill
Ross Honeywill
Ross Honeywill is a social scientist and internationally published author.Honeywill specializes in social research and the understanding and application of social theory...
believe it is social intelligence or the richness of our qualitative life rather than our quantitative intelligence that truly makes humans what they are – for example what it's like to be a human being living at the centre of the conscious present, surrounded by smells and tastes and feels and the sense of being an extraordinary metaphysical entity with properties which hardly seem to belong to the physical world. This is social intelligence.
Additional Views
Social intelligence is closely related to cognitionCognition
In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...
and emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is a skill or ability in the case of the trait EI model, a self-perceived ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. Various models and definitions have been proposed of which the ability and trait EI models are the most...
, and can also be seen as a first level in developing systems intelligence
Systems intelligence
Systems intelligence is human action that connects sensitivity about a systemic environment with systems thinking, thus spurring a person's problem solving capabilities and invoking performance and productivity in everyday situations. Systems intelligence, abbreviated SI, is intelligent behavior in...
.
Research psychologists studying social cognition and social neuroscience
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
have discovered many principles which human social intelligence operates. In early work on this topic, psychologists Nancy Cantor
Nancy Cantor
Nancy Cantor is the 11th chancellor and president of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. She received her A.B. in 1974 from Sarah Lawrence College and her Ph.D. in psychology in 1978 from Stanford University. She became chancellor upon the retirement of Kenneth "Buzz" Shaw...
and John Kihlstrom outlined the kinds of concepts people use to make sense of their social relations (e.g., “What situation am I in and what kind of person is this who is talking to me?”), and the rules they use to draw inferences (“What did he mean by that?”) and plan actions (“What am I going to do about it?”)
More recently, popular science writer Daniel Goleman
Daniel Goleman
Daniel Jay Goleman is an author, psychologist, and science journalist. For twelve years, he wrote for The New York Times, specializing in psychology and brain sciences. He is the author of more than 10 books on psychology, education, science, and leadership.-Life:Goleman was born in Stockton,...
has drawn on social neuroscience
Social neuroscience
Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding how biological systems implement social processes and behavior, and to using biological concepts and methods to inform and refine theories of social processes and behavior. Humans are fundamentally a social species, rather...
research to propose that social intelligence is made up of social awareness (including empathy
Empathy
Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...
, attunement, empathic accuracy
Empathic accuracy
Empathic accuracy is a term in psychology that refers to how accurately one person can infer the thoughts and feelings of another person . It was first introduced in conjunction with a new research method by psychologists William Ickes and William Tooke in 1988...
, and social cognition
Social cognition
Social cognition is the encoding, storage, retrieval, and processing, in the brain, of information relating to conspecifics, or members of the same species. At one time social cognition referred specifically to an approach to social psychology in which these processes were studied according to the...
) and social facility (including synchrony, self-presentation, influence, and concern). Goleman’s immense research indicates that our social relationships have a direct effect on our physical health and the deeper the relationship the deeper the impact. Goleman states that some physical effects of our relationships upon our health are the blood flow of one’s body, one's breathing, one's mood (such as fatigue and depression), and even decreased power of one's immune system.
Educational researcher Raymond H. Hartjen asserts that expanded opportunities for social interaction enhances intelligence.Traditional classrooms do not permit the interaction of complex social behavior. Instead children in traditional settings are treated as learners who must be infused with more and more complex forms of information. Few educational leaders he adduces have taken this position as a starting point to develop a school environment where social interaction could flourish.If we follow this line of thinking then children must have an opportunity for continuous every day interpersonal experiences in order to develop a keen well developed 'inter-personal psychology'.As schools are structured today very few of these skills, critical for survival in the real world, are allowed to develop. Because we so limit the development of the skills of "natural psychologist" in traditional schools our students as graduates, enter the job market handicapped to the point of being incapable of surviving on their own.In contrast those students that have had an ability to develop their skills as a "natural psychologist" in multiage classrooms and at democratic settings rise head and shoulders over their less socially skilled peers. They have a good sense of self, know what they want out of life and have the skills necessary to begin their quest.
The issue here is psychology versus social intelligence—as a separate and distinct perspective, seldom if ever articulated. An appropriate introduction contains certain hypothetical assumptions about social structure and function, as it relates to intelligence defined and expressed by groups, constrained by cultural expectations that assert potential realities, but make no claims or assertions that there is an "exterior" social truth to be defined and mapped—this perspective pursues the view that social structures can be defined with the admonition that what is mapped into the structure and how that information is stored, retrieved, and decided upon are variable, but can be contained in an abstract and formal grammar—a sort of game of definitions and rules that permit and project an evolving intelligence.
Two halves of the coin: one half psychology; the other half social. Unfortunately, most references to social intelligence relate to an individual's social skills. Not mentioned, and more important, is how social intelligence (speaking of a group or assembly of groups) processes information about the world and shares it with participants in the group(s). Are there social structures or can they be designed to accumulate and reveal information to the individual or to other groups. Some social structures are obviously pathological: recently I came across a statement that describes a government as a pathocracy, run by sociopaths.
The bigger question is how groups and societies map the environment (both ecological, social, and personal) into a social structure. How is that structure able to contain a worldview and to reveal that view to the participants? How are decisions made?
Measuring social intelligence
Social Intelligence or SQ is a statistical abstraction similar to the ‘standard score’ approach used in IQ tests with a mean of 100. Scores of 140 or above are considered to be very high.SQ has until recently been measured by techniques such as question and answer sessions. These sessions assess the person's pragmatic
Pragmatics
Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics encompasses speech act theory, conversational implicature, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior in philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. It studies how the...
abilities to test eligibility
Eligibility
Eligibility may refer to:* The right to run for office , sometimes called passive suffrage or voting eligibility* Desirability as a marriage partner, as in the term eligible bachelor...
in certain special education courses, however some tests have been developed to measure social intelligence. One of these is the EQ (Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is a skill or ability in the case of the trait EI model, a self-perceived ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. Various models and definitions have been proposed of which the ability and trait EI models are the most...
) test. This test can be used when diagnosing autism spectrum disorders, including autism
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
and Asperger syndrome
Asperger syndrome
Asperger's syndrome that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development...
. Other, non-autistic or semi-autistic conditions such as semantic pragmatic disorder
Semantic Pragmatic Disorder
Pragmatic language impairment is an impairment in understanding pragmatic areas of language. This type of impairment was previously called semantic-pragmatic disorder . Pragmatic language impairments are related to autism and Asperger syndrome, but also could be related to other non autistic...
or SPD, schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
, dyssemia
Dyssemia
Dyssemia is a term coined by psychologists Marshall Duke and Stephen Nowicki in their 1992 book, Helping The Child Who Doesn't Fit In, to decipher the hidden dimensions of social rejection, and describe difficulties with receptive and/or expressive nonverbal communication. The term comes from the...
and ADHD, are also of relevance. This test can also be used when assessing people that might have some sort of a disorder such as schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
or ADHD.
People with low SQ are more suited to low customer contact roles, since they may not have the required interpersonal communication and social skills for success on the frontline.These people may work better in an occupation that limits social interaction. People with SQs over 120 are considered socially skilled, and may work well with jobs that involve direct contact and communication with other people.
The following example chart shows (assuming a person aged 17 is being tested, with an average SQ of 100 for that age) how a person's social age can be higher or lower based on scores in the SQ test:
| SQ | Social Age |
| 120 (above average - socially mature for age) | 20.4 |
| 110 | 18.7 |
| 100 (average) | 17 |
| 90 | 15.3 |
| 80 | 13.6 |
| 70 (below this level, help is recommended) | 11.9 |
| 60 | 10.2 |
| 50 | 8.5 |
| 40 | 6.8 |
| 30 | 5.1 |
| 20 | 3.4 |
External links
- The Social Intelligence Lab
- The Preeminent Intelligence - Social IQ, Raymond H. Hartjen
- Socially superior, Times Online
- Social Intelligence: the New Science of Success, Dr. Karl AlbrechtKarl AlbrechtKarl Hans Albrecht is a German entrepreneur who founded the discount supermarket chain Aldi with his brother Theo. He is among the richest men in the world, with an estimated net worth in 2011 of $25.5 billion according to Forbes, which ranks him 12th in its 2011 list of billionaires - making him...
, Wiley 2005. - Daniel Goleman's blog and current research
- Social Intelligence, John Kihlstrom and Nancy CantorNancy CantorNancy Cantor is the 11th chancellor and president of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. She received her A.B. in 1974 from Sarah Lawrence College and her Ph.D. in psychology in 1978 from Stanford University. She became chancellor upon the retirement of Kenneth "Buzz" Shaw...
, in R.J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of intelligence, 2nd ed. (pp. 359–379). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. - A Treatise on Messaging and Society Today: The Genesis of the Social Intelligence Architect and the Advent of the Integrated Media Services Organization (IMSO).
- Social Intelligence firm, measuring digital social intelligence.