Why are people high in emotional intelligence happier? They make the most of their positive emotions Dorota Szczygieł a, ⁎, Moïra Mikolajczak b a Department of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty in Sopot, Poland b Department of Psychology, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium abstract article info Article history: Received 25 March 2017 Received in revised form 25 May 2017 Accepted 31 May 2017 Available online xxxx The present study focuses on the role of positive emotion regulation as a potential mechanism for linking trait emotional intelligence (EI) and subjective well-being (SWB). We examined whether the savouring and dampen- ing of positive emotions mediate the relationship between trait EI and the two components of SWB: life satisfac- tion and subjective happiness. A sample of 254 participants completed measures of trait EI, life satisfaction, subjective happiness, and the typical use of savouring and dampening strategies. Analyses indicated that trait EI was positively correlated with the two components of SWB and savouring strategies, and negatively correlated with dampening strategies. Furthermore, savouring strategies were positively related to life satisfaction and sub- jective happiness, whereas dampening strategies were negatively related to life satisfaction and subjective hap- piness. Notably, path analyses indicated that the savouring and dampening of positive emotions partially mediated the relationship between EI and both life satisfaction and subjective happiness. The findings corrobo- rate an important role of trait EI in promoting SWB and suggest that part of its beneficial effect reveals itself through positive emotion regulation. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Positive emotion regulation Savouring Dampening Life satisfaction Subjective happiness 1. Introduction The growing recognition of the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) has led to a significant upsurge in research in this area. There are two predominant conceptualizations of EI: ability models (e.g., Mayer & Salovey, 1997) and trait models (e.g., Petrides & Furnham, 2003). Abil- ity EI captures individuals' ability to perceive, use, understand and reg- ulate emotion in oneself and others (Mayer & Salovey, 1997), whereas trait EI (or trait emotional self-efficacy) relates to people's self percep- tions of their emotional abilities (Petrides, 2011). Ability EI is measured by performance tests relating to maximum performance, whereas trait EI is assessed by self-report inventories referring to typical performance. This study focuses on trait EI and, therefore, uses a self-report question- naire to assess the construct. 1.1. Trait EI and subjective well-being An increasing number of studies demonstrate that trait EI is essential for various aspects of healthy adaptation, ranging from affective func- tioning to social relations (Petrides, 2011; Petrides et al., 2016). One of the issues that has greatly attracted researchers in recent years is the role of trait EI in determining individuals' subjective well-being (SWB) which refers to how people experience the quality of their lives (Diener, Oishi, & Lucas, 2003). It is claimed that the ability to perceive, express, understand and manage emotions plays a crucial role in promoting SWB (Zeidner, Matthews, & Roberts, 2012). Indeed, recent meta-analyses demonstrate that people high in trait EI report higher SWB than their low in trait EI counterparts (Andrei, Siegling, Aloe, Baldaro, & Petrides, 2016; Sánchez-Álvarez, Extremera, & Fernández-Berrocal, 2016). Moreover, a substantial body of research provides evidence for the incremental validity of trait EI in predicting SWB, beyond demographics and the Big Five personality traits, indicat- ing the unique contribution of trait EI in explaining people's experience of the quality of life (e.g., Andrei et al., 2016; Gardner & Qualter, 2010; Petrides, Pérez-González, & Furnham, 2007). Nevertheless, although considerable research has been devoted to providing evidence for the relationship between trait EI and SWB, rather less attention has been paid to the mechanisms or processes underlying this relationship. Some authors have already shown that the trait EI–SWB relationship is mediated by affective processes. Specifically, results show that EI fos- ters the occurrence of positive emotions and decreases the frequency of negative emotions, which in turn lead to a higher sense of SWB (Sánchez-Álvarez et al., 2016). Results demonstrate that both positive and negative emotions mediate the relationship between EI and life sat- isfaction (LS), and this effect is observed regardless of whether EI is measured through self-report questionnaires (Kong & Zhao, 2013) or Personality and Individual Differences 117 (2017) 177–181 ⁎ Corresponding author at: SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty in Sopot, 81–745 Sopot, ul. Polna 16/20, Poland. E-mail address: dszczygiel@swps.edu.pl (D. Szczygieł). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.05.051 0191-8869/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid