A smiling face with heart-shaped eyes, a hand with the thumb up, a gypsy dancing happily … all these symbols are part of our language on the internet as they give a little more personality and emotion to our communication. And, believe it or not, they transmit much more than meets the eye.
New research by psychologists Linda Kaye, Stephanie Malone and Helen Wall from Edge Hill University (UK) suggests that the use of emojis and emoticons can reveal personality traits. Like our non-verbal communication in a face-to-face conversation, emojis and emoticons have the same function: visual aids to understand the meaning of the message.
The authors conducted two complementary studies. The first looked at how psychological considerations impacted the use of emojis in text messages, Facebook, and email. Participants reported their use of emojis as well as their personality traits. They then participated in a 10-minute conversation with an unknown user with instructions that communication should be as natural as possible.
In the second experiment, the participants analyzed the Facebook profiles and conversations of the participants in the first study and then assessed what their first impression was. The research revealed that those who used positive emoticons (synonymous with happiness) were more open or outgoing.
Emojis are valuable for adding emotion to a conversation, but we should think twice which one to choose as it could be misunderstood: “ People make judgments about us based on how we use emojis , and those judgments are not necessarily accurate. “says Linda Kaye, a co-author of the study.
Although much of the psychology behind the emoji and the use of emoticons remains unknown, the researchers say they hope to better understand “the intersection between interactions in person and online and how human nature can be reflected through the media. digital “.
The study has been published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
