A large new study has found that emotional intelligence is linked to distinct physical activity patterns in women, but not in men. The research, published in Personality and Individual Differences, analysed data from 6,368 Lithuanian adults aged 18 to 64, with women making up about 71 per cent of participants.
Emotional intelligence describes a person’s ability to perceive, regulate, and effectively use both their own emotions and those of others. Higher emotional intelligence is often associated with better psychological well-being, social functioning and resilience to stress, and emerging evidence suggests these emotional skills connect with daily health habits and aging.
Regular physical activity is widely recognised as essential for mental and physical health. The study notes that exercise, sleep and sedentary behaviour influence emotional regulation through shared biological pathways, including the autonomic nervous system and brain regions that process emotion. Vigorous exercise—such as running or heavy weightlifting—presents unique regulatory demands because it alternates intense physical stress with recovery cycles.
The Lithuanian researchers, led by Albertas Skurvydas and Daiva Majauskiene of Vytautas Magnus University and Klaipėda University, designed the study to explore how emotional intelligence relates not only to whether people exercise, but to the intensity of their activity, sedentary time, sleep and body mass index. They also sought to see whether these patterns varied by age or sex.
The team recruited 6,368 adults in Lithuania, aged 18 to 64, of whom around 71 per cent were women. Data were collected at a single point in time via online questionnaires, a cross-sectional design that captures a snapshot rather than long-term change.
Emotional intelligence was measured with the 33‑item Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test, which asks participants to rate how they manage their own feelings and respond to others’ emotions. Higher scores indicate greater emotional perception and regulation.
Exercise habits were assessed with the Danish Physical Activity Questionnaire. Participants recalled activities from an average 24‑hour period in the previous week, with activities classified by intensity using metabolic equivalents, a standard energy-expenditure measure. Body mass index was calculated from self-reported height and weight.
Analyses revealed notable age and sex differences. Emotional intelligence tended to rise with age for both sexes, and overall women reported higher EI and more light-intensity activity. Men, by contrast, had higher BMI and reported substantially more time spent in vigorous activity.
Among women, higher emotional intelligence scores were associated with more time spent in vigorous physical activity and with less sedentary behaviour across the adult age range studied. For men, however, age was the only factor positively linked to emotional intelligence, with no statistically significant ties between EI and sleep, sedentary time or any activity intensity.
Direct comparisons confirmed that the link between vigorous activity and emotional intelligence was markedly stronger in women than in men, with no age interaction detected in this difference.
The authors acknowledge that the study’s cross-sectional design cannot determine causation. It remains unclear whether higher EI encourages more vigorous exercise, whether intense physical activity improves emotional regulation, or whether a bidirectional relationship exists. The use of self-reported data also raises the possibility of reporting biases and social desirability effects, potentially inflating observed associations.
Sample characteristics and methodology may limit generalisability beyond the Lithuanian population, and the observed effects were small in magnitude, explaining only a portion of the variance in emotional intelligence scores. The researchers call for longitudinal and experimental studies to better establish directionality and causality and to explore whether altering exercise regimes can influence emotional regulation over time.
The study, “Higher emotional intelligence is linked to greater vigorous physical activity and lower sedentary behaviour, specifically among women across adulthood,” lists Albertas Skurvydas, Ausra Lisinskienė, Aiste Barbora Ušpurienė, Eglė Kemerytė‑Ivanauskienė, Dovilė Valančienė, Asta Sarkauskienė, Jurga Bucaitė‑Vilke, and Daiva Majauskienė as authors. The work was conducted at Vytautas Magnus University and Klaipėda University in Lithuania.
