Journal
COMPUTERS IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Volume 119, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2021.106722
Keywords
Emojis; Emotions; First impressions; Information processing; Nonverbal; Digital communication
Funding
- Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant [430202000188]
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The study found that emojis have an impact on emotion interpretation and information processing. Negative emojis intensify negativity, while positive emojis enhance perceived warmth and understanding. Emojis, especially positive ones, are useful for improving communication and making a positive impression in digital interactions.
Many emojis symbolize nonverbal cues that are used during face-to-face communication. Despite their popularity, few studies have examined how emojis influence digital interactions. The present study addresses this gap by measuring the impact of emojis on emotion interpretation, social attributions, and information processing. Participants read messages that are typical of social exchanges in instant text messaging (IM) accompanied by emojis that mimic negative, positive and neutral facial expressions. Sentence valence and emoji valence were paired in a fully crossed design such that verbal and nonverbal messages were either congruent or incongruent. Perceived emotional state of the sender, perceived warmth, and patterns of eye movements that reflect information processing were measured. A negativity effect was observed whereby the sender?s mood was perceived as negative when a negative emoji and/or a negative sentence were presented. Moreover, the presence of a negative emoji intensified the perceived negativity of negative sentences. Adding a positive emoji to a message increased the perceived warmth of the sender. Finally, processing speed and understanding of verbal messages was enhanced by the presence of congruent emojis. Our results therefore support the use of emojis, and in particular positive emojis, to improve communication, express feelings, and make a positive impression during socially driven digital interactions.
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