We immediately recognise and feel the warmth of our beloved's gaze soft upon us.

When their stare switches to penetrating and strong we know they are pissed off. We feel the ice in their eyes as quickly as we perceive it too.

Our pupils dilate in moments of great grief or arousal and we squint when we do not like someone or something they are saying.

Raised eyebrows that reveal the whites above a person's irises indicates surprise or fear, while someone lifting their head and looking down their nose at you often indicates arrogance.

Reading the emotions in the eyes of others is an important skill we learn early.

Recent research shows that babies as young as seven months old are sensitive to expressions of fear, surprise and joy in the eyes of adults.

The ability to perceive and empathise with the emotions of others may be one of the most defining features of humanity.

When we can perceive and empathise, we feel what they are feeling and can work together from this platform of understanding.

"Our self comes to include the people we become close to," said the authors on a recent empathy study. "If a friend is under threat, it becomes the same as if we ourselves are under threat. We can understand the pain or difficulty they may be going through in the same way we understand our own pain."

It is also a crucial skill that enables our navigation of complex social relationships and even our performance at work.

In fact, one recent study tested emotional intelligence alongside 33 other important workplace skills, and found that emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of performance.

But, the ability to read the emotion of another's eyes – a key trait of emotional intelligence and social IQ – is a trickier task these days.

Given most of us spend more time looking at a screen than into each other's eyes, technology doesn't help.

One study found that sixth-graders who went five days without even glancing at a smartphone, television or other digital screen did substantially better at reading human emotions than sixth-graders from the same school who continued to spend hours each day looking at their electronic devices.

Our obsession with Botox – which essentially freezes expression of emotion in the face – doesn't help much either. Recent research has found it has the potential to stunt emotional intelligence and our ability to learn empathy.

"As a human being our ability to demonstrate a wide range of emotions is very dependent on facial expressions," said the author of one paper, Helen Collier.

"Emotions such as empathy and sympathy help us to survive and grow into confident and communicative adults ...

"If you wipe those expressions out, this might stunt their emotional and social development."

We can improve our sensitivity to reading other's emotional states – some say by literally reading – but how well can you "tune in" to others and understand their mental state?

University of Cambridge professor Simon Baron-Cohen (cousin to comedian, Sacha Baron Cohen) has been researching social sensitivity for more than 30 years.

He developed a test which allows you to measure how socially sensitive you are and how well you read the mind in the eyes of others.

Becoming fluent in the reading the eyes of others is a worthwhile task, not least because empathy is a necessary component in the language of love.

And as Baron-Cohen says:

"Empathy is our most valuable, natural resource."

Test your social intelligence by reading people's eyes by clicking here.