Emotional competence (EC; also called "emotional intelligence"), which refers to individual differences in the identification, understanding, expression, regulation, and use of one's emotions and those of others, has been found to be an important predictor of individuals' adaptation to their environment. Higher EC is associated with greater happiness, better mental health, more satisfying social and marital relationships, and greater occupational success. Whereas a considerable amount of research has documented the significance of EC, 1 domain has been crucially under investigated: the relationship between EC and physical health. We examined the relationship between EC and objective health indicators in 2 studies (N1 = 1,310; N2 = 9,616) conducted in collaboration with the largest Mutual Benefit Society in Belgium. These studies allowed us (a) to compare the predictive power of EC with other well-known predictors of health such as age, sex, Body Mass Index, education level, health behaviors (diet, physical activity, smoking and drinking habits), positive and negative affect, and social support; (b) to clarify the relative weight of the various EC dimensions in predicting health; and (c) to determine to what extent EC moderates the effect of already known predictors on health. Results show that EC is a significant predictor of health that has incremental predictive power over and above other predictors. Findings also show that high EC significantly attenuates (and sometimes compensates for) the impact of other risk factors. Therefore, we argue that EC deserves greater interest and attention from health professionals and governments.

Prison employees are often confronted with critical incidents and chronic stressors that may lead to trauma or burnout symptoms. However, most of the research on clinical aspects of interpersonal violence in prisons (inmates-to-staff violence, specifically) focuses either on trauma or on burnout. The purpose of the present study is (a) to examine both burnout and posttraumatic stress among prison staff and (b) to examine the influences of inmates-to-staff violent relations on posttraumatic stress in terms of risk profile to develop PTSD. A random sample of French correctional employees has completed various self-reported questionnaires assessing burnout, posttraumatic stress, and stress as well as victimization and demographic characteristics. Correctional employees demonstrated high levels of PTSD symptoms, burnout, and stress. Violent interactions with inmates lead to experienced trauma of all types (PTSD, secondary, or vicarious trauma). Results have highlighted a prison worker's profile prone to PTSD: he or she expresses high levels of emotional exhaustion, intense levels of stress, high levels of depersonalization, and high levels of intrusion, avoidance, and hyperreactivity. This study contributes to an understanding of the literature by explaining the complex association between burnout and posttraumatic stress after interpersonal violence. These findings suggest a need to support prison workers and to address inmates-to-staff relational dynamics.

Machiavellianism is a personality trait characterized by interpersonal manipulation and associated with specific patterns of emotional and social cognition skills. The aim of this study was to investigate its socio-cognitive characteristics by determining its association and predictors on the basis of a multidimensional approach to Machiavellianism. We used Mach IV scale to assess “Machiavellian Intelligence” skill of participants (Christie and Geis, 1970). It includes three subscales that are (1) the use of deceit in interpersonal relationships, (2) a cynical view of human nature and (3) the lack of morality. Associations were found between Machiavellianism and low levels of empathy and affective ToM, and high levels of alexithymia, anhedonia, depression, and anxiety. These associations were observed in varying proportions depending on the three subscales of Machiavellianism. The addition of anhedonia and trait-anxiety to the concepts of empathy and alexithymia made it possible to gain a better understanding of the emotional core of Machiavellianism. These findings are discussed in the light of developmental and adaptive perspectives.

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We study the psychophysiological state of humans when exposed to robot groups of varying sizes. In our experiments, 24 participants are exposed sequentially to groups of robots made up of 1, 3 and 24 robots. We measure both objective physiological metrics (skin conductance level and heart rate), and subjective self-reported metrics (from a psychological questionnaire). These measures allow us to analyse the psychophysiological state (stress, anxiety, happiness) of our participants. Our results show that the number of robots to which a human is exposed has a significant impact on the psychophysiological state of the human and that higher numbers of robots provoke a stronger response.