The oft-repeated belief that women have a higher emotional intelligence than men may be more complex than we think, according to a study led by Kemmy Business School’s Mary Hausfeld. “Our findings suggest that common assumptions about women and men’s emotional abilities are often too broad,” Hausfeld shared. “Rather than reinforcing stereotypes, the evidence points to a more nuanced picture in which gender differences vary depending on the emotional skill being examined and the context in which it is measured.” In an analysis of research spanning 600,000 participants across 76 countries, the study explored general emotional intelligence and three related abilities: recognising, understanding and regulating emotions. While women and girls scored higher overall for emotional intelligence and were better, on average, at recognising and understanding emotions, men and boys scored slightly higher when it came to regulating their own emotions. By analysing research over three decades, the study also found that the gap between women and men’s general emotional intelligence is smaller in more recent studies. Among children, gender differences in general emotional intelligence, emotion recognition and emotion regulation have all declined over time. These findings support the idea that changing social expectations and gender norms are influencing the development of emotional skills. “There is no simple answer to the question of whether women or men are more emotionally intelligent,” Hausfeld surmised, adding that the goal should be to recognise EQ “as a range of skills that can be developed in everyone.” TBD STUDY OFFERS A MORE NUANCED VIEW OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SCHOOL : Kemmy Business School University of Limerick, Ireland
HEC Montréal has partnered with the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) to launch a five-day programme on sustainability for business executives. The programme aims to combine HEC Montréal’s strength in executive education with United Nations University’s expertise in science and global issues. “Today’s leaders must make decisions in an environment where transformations are accelerating and intersecting. Executive education provides the space to step back, renew perspectives and turn knowledge into decisions,” declared Dominique Anglade, executive director of executive education at HEC Montréal. “With UNU-INWEH, we are bringing together leading-edge science, international perspectives and management realities to better prepare leaders to act amid uncertainty and lead change.” Topics on the certificate programme will include major environmental and economic transitions, resource management, polarisation dynamics, foresight and decision-making under uncertainty. “The major challenges of our time do not occur in isolation. They are deeply interconnected and require decision makers to make difficult choices. Science can inform these choices, provided it is understood, contextualised and connected to action,” reasoned UNU‑INWEH director Kaveh Madani. A recipient of the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize for his work on water governance, Madani’s research focuses on the interactions between human and environmental systems and the connections between science and decision-making. “By bringing scientific knowledge closer to leadership development, we seek to strengthen leaders’ ability to make sound, sustainable decisions,” he added. EB COMBINING SCIENTIFIC EXPERTISE WITH EXECUTIVE EDUCATION TO DRIVE CHANGE SCHOOL : HEC Montréal, Canada
10 Ambition • ISSUE 5 • 2026
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