Tuning into Experience: Self-Location Flexibility and Experiential Ability

Conceptual metaphors for the head and the heart implicate distinct modes of processing, each of which may be advantageous in some circumstances but not others. By representing the self as an entity that can migrate between head and heart bodily regions in a strategic manner, some individuals may be capable of modulating the self to succeed in both rational and experiential domains. In three studies involving five samples (total N = 798), participants simulated themselves performing different activities, following which they indicated whether the self would primarily be located in the head, the heart, or somewhere in between. Self-location flexibility, defined in terms of heart-favoring self-locations in situations involving feelings, was positively linked to trait-related emotional intelligence (Study 1), ability-related emotional intelligence (Study 2), and experiential abilities of multiple types (Study 3). The research documents a novel form of flexibility that should be of interest to multiple literatures.