In media, Social Intelligence translates to the net inner gains and losses we experience with a given person or in a given conversation, to create the net balance of feelings we maintain about a brand or product. We participate in this interpersonal economy whenever a social interaction results in a transfer of feeling–which is virtually always:
Perhaps, Author Daniel Goleman in “Social Intelligence” has captured this experience:
“We are wired to connect.” Each encounter between people engages their emotions and in turn, steer our emotional economy. Given our socially reactive brains, we must “be wise,” he says, “and be aware of the ways that our moods influence the each life we touch.”
Specifically, in the discussion of Mood Drivers, Daniel Goleman remembers while visiting other regions of the country:
“…being pleasantly surprised by the friendly tones of the taped voice on the telephone that informed, ‘Your call could not be completed as dialed’… gave a small trill of good feeling – due largely to my years of irritating phone company’s computerized voice back home.”
Goleman further explains that the decision to use a less friendly voice in other instances felt like an immediate punishment for misdialing and would ultimately put him in a bad mood.
References: Daniel Goleman, “Social Intelligence”, Bantam Dell, 2006
