Being good at reading emotions is usually seen as a workplace asset. A new set of studies suggests it depends on which emotions you read. People skilled at picking up negative feelings around them had worse attitudes toward their coworkers and jobs, while skill at noticing positive feelings brought no clear benefit.
The research is by Jigyashu Shukla of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Dana L. Joseph of the University of Central Florida, Nikhil Awasty of the University of New Hampshire and Brent A. Scott of Michigan State University. It was published online in the Journal of Applied Psychology on September 29, 2025.
A blessing that did not appear
The team tested two ideas. Perceiving positive emotion might be a “blessing,” letting people see the good around them. Drawing on the empathic accuracy model, perceiving negative emotion might be a “curse.”
They used three designs: an experiment, a sample of employed coworker pairs, and an experience sampling study that followed people through their workdays. Across them, they found no support for the blessing. They did find the curse: the ability to perceive negative emotion was linked to harsher views of coworkers, worse views of the job and more withdrawal from work.
Catching what you see
The authors point to emotional contagion as a likely mechanism. The more negative emotion a person notices at work, the more of it they come to feel themselves, and the greater the personal cost of their perceptiveness.
They also tested a fix. An intervention that told employees to focus on the positive emotions in their work environment reduced the harmful effects of the ability, the authors report.
Study Details:
- Title: Ignorance may be bliss: How the ability to perceive emotions influences attitudes and behavior
- Authors: Jigyashu Shukla, Dana L. Joseph, Nikhil Awasty, Brent A. Scott
- Journal: Journal of Applied Psychology
- Publication Date: September 29, 2025
- DOI: 10.1037/apl0001327