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Social Perceptiveness

Cross-functional skill · O*NET work requirement

Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.

In the O*NET occupational database, Social Perceptiveness is a skill that work requires. O*NET rates how important it is (1–5) and what level of it a job needs (0–7) for every U.S. occupation. It is rated as important (3 or higher) in 576 of 894 occupations.

Breadth here means how widely O*NET rates this skill as important across occupations — not that it is rare, high-paying, or currently in employer demand.

Occupations that rely most on Social Perceptiveness

Ranked by O*NET importance to the occupation (1–5). Bars are sized against the 1–5 scale; the level column is what depth of the skill the job needs (0–7).

Occupation Importance Score Level
Mental Health Counselors 5.0 5.8
Psychiatrists 4.5 5.4
Clinical and Counseling Psychologists 4.4 5.0
Marriage and Family Therapists 4.4 5.8
Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses 4.3 4.9
Art Therapists 4.3 4.9
Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary 4.3 4.8
Emergency Medicine Physicians 4.3 4.8
Healthcare Social Workers 4.3 5.1
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers 4.3 5.1
Music Therapists 4.3 4.5
Chief Executives 4.1 4.3
Child, Family, and School Social Workers 4.1 4.6
Clergy 4.1 5.0
Clinical Neuropsychologists 4.1 4.9
Community Health Workers 4.1 4.3
Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors 4.1 4.9
Hospitalists 4.1 4.9
Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education 4.1 4.0
Midwives 4.1 4.9
Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers 4.1 4.4
Neurologists 4.1 4.6
Neuropsychologists 4.1 4.9
Nurse Midwives 4.1 4.1
Psychiatric Technicians 4.1 4.3
Registered Nurses 4.1 4.4
Special Education Teachers, Elementary School 4.1 4.3
Speech-Language Pathologists 4.1 4.3
Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors 4.1 5.0
Acute Care Nurses 4.0 4.8
Adapted Physical Education Specialists 4.0 4.1
Advertising and Promotions Managers 4.0 4.0
Audiologists 4.0 4.5
Bailiffs 4.0 3.4
Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School 4.0 3.8
Clinical Nurse Specialists 4.0 4.3
Coaches and Scouts 4.0 4.0
Concierges 4.0 3.0
Correctional Officers and Jailers 4.0 3.8
Critical Care Nurses 4.0 4.1

Showing the top 40 of 576 occupations where this is important.

How AI is used by roles that need Social Perceptiveness

This skill is not itself "being automated" — but we can look at the roles for which O*NET rates it important and ask how those people actually use AI. This rolls the Anthropic Economic Index per-role signal up across those roles (importance-weighted). 67.7% of the 576 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (390 roles).

Across those roles, 48.4% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 30.8% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.58 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 29.1% AI does it; you give the instruction
task iteration 25.1% you and AI go back and forth
learning 20.4% you ask AI to explain or teach
validation 2.9% you do it; AI checks your work
feedback loop 1.7% AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback

Roles behind this signal

The roles where this skill is most important and that also have the most AEI data. "Works with AI" is the role's share of conversations that augment rather than automate.

Occupation Importance Works with AI Autonomy
English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 3.1 63.2% 4.0/5
Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary 3.3 63.2% 4.0/5
Educational, Guidance, School, and Vocational Counselors 4.1 70.6% 4.0/5
Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 3.3 65.2% 3.0/5
Editors 3.1 68.2% 4.0/5
Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers 3.1 46.2% 4.0/5
Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary 3.8 67.2% 3.5/5
Instructional Coordinators 3.9 53.1% 4.0/5
Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary 3.4 66.8% 3.3/5
Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary 3.6 66.2% 3.5/5
Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary 3.1 66.2% 3.3/5
Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary 3.8 66.2% 4.0/5

Source: Anthropic Economic Index (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) over a sample of Claude.ai Free and Pro conversations — not all AI tools and not the whole workforce. Shares are of observed conversations, weighted by how important this skill is to each role; some conversations are left unclassified by Anthropic's taxonomy, so shares need not sum to 100.

Industries that concentrate this

Where Social Perceptiveness matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Social Perceptiveness (O*NET importance ≥ 3 of 5). Concentration compares that reach to the national average industry, so a value above 1× means the requirement is more pervasive here than across the economy as a whole.

Nationally, about 60.7% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Social Perceptiveness (measured across 67 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Health Care and Social Assistance 16,050,390 69.5%
Retail Trade 11,102,310 71.2%
Educational Services 10,384,370 76.1%
Accommodation and Food Services 9,491,630 66.7%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 7,374,370 68.5%
Finance and Insurance 5,454,860 87.6%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 4,293,580 47.5%
Manufacturing 3,807,920 29.8%
Wholesale Trade 3,274,170 54.2%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 2,919,230 66.0%
Construction 2,731,200 33.6%
Transportation and Warehousing 2,383,620 32.2%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Offices of Chiropractors National industry 1.57× 95.2%
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages National industry 1.55× 94.3%
Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and Audiologists National industry 1.54× 93.5%
Offices of Optometrists National industry 1.53× 92.7%
Pharmacies and Drug Retailers National industry 1.52× 92.0%
Radio Broadcasting Stations National industry 1.52× 92.3%
Exterminating and Pest Control Services National industry 1.5× 91.1%
Labor Unions and Similar Labor Organizations National industry 1.49× 90.3%
Television Broadcasting Stations National industry 1.49× 90.6%
Veterinary Services National industry 1.47× 89.0%
Finance and Insurance Sector 1.44× 87.6%
Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers National industry 1.42× 86.4%

Reach is a measure of how widespread a requirement is across an industry's workforce, not how intensively any individual uses it. Sector worker counts come from BLS OEWS employment; the significance threshold and tool use come from O*NET. Industries shown by concentration are filtered to a real worker base so a tiny specialty cannot top the list on rounding.

Capabilities required by many of the same occupations — a measure of which skills, knowledge and abilities tend to travel together, not a judgment of similarity.

Capability Type Shared occupations
Written Expression Ability 519
Writing Basic skill 496
Service Orientation Cross-functional skill 442
Speech Clarity Ability 573
Written Comprehension Ability 554
Reading Comprehension Basic skill 547
Active Learning Basic skill 483
Coordination Cross-functional skill 517
Speaking Basic skill 574
Speech Recognition Ability 574
English Language Knowledge 558
Inductive Reasoning Ability 542

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Social Perceptiveness." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/skills/social-perceptiveness

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Social Perceptiveness. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/skills/social-perceptiveness

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-social-perceptiveness,
  title  = {Social Perceptiveness},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/skills/social-perceptiveness}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.