Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 85% certainty 4/5 debate potential 4/5

Sutton: Emotional intelligence is only 10% as important as IQ

Bob Sutton · a16z Podcast | The Asshole Survival Guide · Jan 2, 2019 · at 14:26

Bob Sutton, Stanford professor and author, discusses emotional intelligence (EQ) research and workplace performance with Harrison Metal founder Michael Dearing on the a16z Podcast.

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“EQ is one of the most overrated concepts on the planet. It's there, it matters, but if you look at the evidence, it's about, a good guess, 10% as important as old-fashioned IQ.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Bob Sutton claims that emotional intelligence (EQ) is only about 10% as important as traditional IQ for predicting job performance and success.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The claim is supported by academic meta-analyses in industrial-organizational psychology when evaluated using variance explained (R^2), which is the standard statistical metric for determining the relative importance of predictor variables in regression models. Meta-analyses (e.g., Schmidt & Hunter; Joseph & Newman) establish that cognitive ability (IQ) explains roughly 26% to 44% of variance in job performance, whereas ability-based emotional intelligence (EQ) accounts for approximately 3% to 5% of variance. Comparing these variance-explained figures yields a relative ratio of approximately 10% to 11% (1/10th). While comparing raw correlation coefficients (r) or self-reported/trait EQ measures results in higher ratios (35% to 58%), the variance-explained metric for objective ability-based EQ directly confirms the statement.

Schmidt & Hunter (1998/2016) meta-analyses show cognitive ability accounts for 26% to 44% of variance (R^2) in job performance.
Joseph & Newman (2010) and O'Boyle et al. (2011) meta-analyses show ability-based EQ accounts for approximately 3% to 5% of variance in job performance.
The ratio of variance explained (3-5% for ability EQ vs. 26-44% for IQ) equals approximately 11% (roughly 1/10th).

Checked against

[1] a16z.com [2] a16z.com [3] chro.co.za [4] cogn-iq.org [5] master-hr.com [6] cogn-iq.org [7] hravatar.com [8] researchgate.net

meta analysis emotional intelligence IQ job performance predictive validity variance explained "a16z" "Bob Sutton" "2017" "emotional intelligence" OR "EQ" OR "IQ" "Bob Sutton" "Asshole Survival Guide" "a16z" podcast transcript "Sackett et al." 2022 validity job performance cognitive ability emotional intelligence

assessed as of 2026-07-28

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Mentioned

EQ IQ

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