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New research points to a sustained global decline in the human capacities that shape connection, adaptation, and leadership.
Something has shifted.
It is not easy to define, but many people can sense it. Since 2020, the texture of daily life appears to have changed. Focus feels harder to sustain. Trust is more fragile. Optimism about the future can feel less accessible. Conversations seem more guarded, tempers shorter, and any sense of shared purpose more difficult to maintain. At work, at school, and around the dinner table, many describe a kind of emotional fog—not a single, easily defined condition, but a broader erosion in the human capacities that help people navigate life together.
Now there is data to support that perception.
A major study published in Frontiers in Psychology documents what the researchers call an “Emotional Recession”—a sustained, measurable global decline in emotional intelligence. Based on data from 28,000 adults across 166 countries tracked from 2019 to 2024, the findings are significant: global emotional intelligence scores declined by nearly 6%. Wellbeing fell by close to 5%. According to the study, the steepest declines appeared in capacities especially relevant to the present moment—optimism, intrinsic motivation, and sense of purpose.
The paper is less than four months old and already ranks in the top 5% of all research tracked by Altmetric, a measure of public and academic attention, suggesting the findings are resonating far beyond the research community.
“This is a wakeup call for organizations,” says Joshua Freedman, CEO of Six Seconds, a global emotional intelligence network active in more than 170 countries, and author of the new book Emotion Rules. Freedman, who coined the term “Emotional Recession,” has tracked global emotional intelligence data for more than a decade. “What we’re seeing is a widespread decline in the human skills that hold societies and organizations together—trust, empathy, the ability to stay motivated from the inside out. These are the capacities that enable everything from good leadership to good parenting to functional democracy.”
How this shift took shape
The Emotional Recession did not emerge in isolation. The trend appears connected to the rapid deployment of powerful technologies without sufficient attention to their emotional and social effects.
The clearest precedent is social media. As psychologist Jonathan Haidt and others have argued, the rapid adoption of social platforms—particularly among younger populations—restructured social life in ways still being assessed: rising anxiety and depression, eroded trust, shorter attention spans, and systems that often reward outrage more than understanding.
The broader pattern extends beyond social platforms alone. The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer points to a wider crisis of connection: 70% of people worldwide now hold what Edelman describes as an “insular mindset,” meaning they are unwilling or hesitant to trust someone with different values, problem-solving approaches, or cultural backgrounds. Only 32% believe the next generation will be better off. The social conditions that support collaboration, risk-taking, and shared purpose appear to have been weakening for years.
This context makes Haidt’s broader work on emotion and judgment especially relevant. Research spanning decades suggests that emotions are not obstacles to decision-making but central components of it. Moral intuition, judgment, and the ability to navigate social complexity all depend in part on emotional processing. Reason without emotional input may produce analysis, but not necessarily prioritization, commitment, or connection.
That has implications beyond individual mood or morale. When emotional capacity declines at a population level, the effects can shape how groups think, decide, and respond. Systems become more reactive and less reflective, more tribal and less collaborative, more focused on immediate threats and less capable of sustained, long-range problem-solving.
“Emotions follow discoverable rules,” Freedman says. “They have their own logic. When we understand that logic, feelings become a source of insight rather than noise. But the Emotional Recession means fewer people have access to that insight—at the exact moment we need it most.”
What’s actually declining—and why it matters beyond the boardroom
The research identifies a specific cluster of capacities showing the sharpest decline. According to the study, three closely related skills fell by 7–8% over the five-year period—more than any others measured. All three relate to what the researchers describe as “drive”: the ability to envision a better future, remain motivated from the inside out rather than relying primarily on external rewards, and connect everyday actions to a larger sense of purpose.
In practical terms, those declines affect far more than workplace performance.
When optimism weakens, people may find it harder to imagine alternatives to current conditions. According to the researchers, that influences career decisions, parenting, civic participation, and willingness to try something new when familiar approaches are no longer working. Without a forward-looking orientation, defaulting to the familiar becomes more likely, even when existing patterns are unproductive.
When intrinsic motivation declines, dependence on external validation or reward tends to increase. Internal direction becomes less stable, and behavior can become more reactive, more vulnerable to manipulation, and more difficult to sustain over time. Trends such as quiet quitting may reflect this broader erosion of internal drive rather than a simple lack of effort.
And when sense of purpose frays, the link between daily activity and broader meaning becomes weaker. That dynamic overlaps with a wider crisis of disconnection. The U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 advisory on loneliness and isolation warned that social disconnection carries health risks comparable to smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. The Emotional Recession data adds another layer to that discussion: physical isolation is only part of the story. The capacities that support deep, durable connection may also be under strain.
In Freedman’s analysis, these are not isolated changes. They form a recognizable cascade. Sustained, unresolved stress can shift emotional systems toward short-term survival and away from long-term meaning. Attention narrows. Defensiveness rises. Immediate demands crowd out future orientation.
“The Emotional Recession is what happens when an entire population’s emotional operating system shifts into threat mode—and stays there,” Freedman says. “It’s not that people are failing. It’s that the conditions have overwhelmed our capacity to adapt. And that capacity is exactly what we need to rebuild.”
What the research suggests next
The same research documenting the decline also highlights an important contrast. According to the study, individuals with higher emotional intelligence were more than ten times more likely to report strong outcomes across effectiveness, relationships, quality of life, and wellbeing combined. The researchers note that this odds ratio remains statistically robust across multiple demographic variables.
The findings also suggest that emotional intelligence should not be understood solely as a fixed personality trait. A growing body of research—including longitudinal studies and organizational case studies compiled by Six Seconds and other groups—treats it as a measurable set of skills that can change over time.
Freedman’s book, Emotion Rules (2026), builds on that premise. The framework presented in the book moves beyond standard emotional intelligence models centered on recognizing and managing emotions, and instead focuses on what Freedman calls “emotional wisdom”—the use of emotion as information relevant to values, purpose, and decision-making.
“Most approaches teach people to manage emotions—control reactions, stay composed, push through,” Freedman explains. “That’s useful, but it’s incomplete. Emotions aren’t problems to manage. They’re data. The book introduces twelve principles for understanding how emotions actually work—so you can use them as a navigational system rather than fighting them.”
The implications extend well beyond any single individual or organization. Families, schools, communities, workplaces, and civic institutions all rely on the same emotional capacities that this research suggests are under pressure. Whether those capacities can recover at the pace and scale current conditions demand remains an open question. But the evidence that these skills are measurable—and potentially developable—makes the findings relevant not only as a warning sign, but as a framework for understanding a broader social shift.
“The Emotional Recession tells us where we are,” Freedman writes. “Emotional wisdom shows us the way through.”
About Six Seconds: Six Seconds is a global network dedicated to emotional intelligence, active in more than 170 countries through research, assessments, and education.
About Emotion Rules: Emotion Rules: The Science and Practice of Emotional Wisdom by Joshua Freedman launched March 10, 2026.
