The usage of emojis in digital communication has greatly increased in the last decade, as the world has become more dependent on technology for communication. In a text-based conversation, emojis can convey emotions that words sometimes cannot. After analyzing the responses from over three million smartphone users across 212 countries, it has been found that one of the most common reasons that people use emojis is to express emotion (Lu et al., 2016). Not only have emojis proven to be important in day-to-day communication between people, but they have also become prominent on social media for spreading important messages in fields such as public health, politics, and science (Lotfinejad et al., 2020; Kariryaa et al., 2020; Joubert). When national flag emojis are used in online communication, it is often associated with international events that increase people’s desire to express nationalism (Kariryaa et al., 2020). With regard to public health, it has been found that hand hygiene behavior can significantly be improved when using emojis on hand-rub dispensers (Gaube et al., 2018). Additionally, during the pandemic, there was a 1662% increase in the use of the microbe emoji on Twitter (Haasch). Emojis have become increasingly important in digital communication, both in personal conversations and also widespread messages on social media, so it becomes crucial to understand what prompts people to use these emojis in the first place and what the consequences of such usage are.
Emojis have been suggested to play a role similar to nonverbal signals in face-to-face interactions. They help to establish a social presence, promote social connectedness, and reduce conflictual online behaviors (Boutet et al., 2021). In short, emojis carry social information. Often, individuals make assumptions about the social behaviors of people online based on their emoji usage. It has been shown that individuals who use a lot of positive emoticons on Facebook are perceived as more agreeable, conscientious, and open (Wall et al., 2016). Interpretation of emotional tone is also enhanced when the emotional valence of emoticons matches that of the verbal message (Filik et al., 2016). It is the natural human tendency to make assumptions about a person’s personality based on their online presence. Therefore, it is important to understand where these assumptions stem from and how they play into emoji usage.
These human tendencies can be explained by the notion of “display rules,” which are socially learned standards that regulate the expression of emotion (APA Dictionary of Psychology). In the context of emoji usage, research has shown that a person’s internal conflict is the greatest when there is an inconsistency between the emotions that they are experiencing and the emojis that they are using, and often, the “inconsistency” is due to a desire to fit in and use the emojis that others are using, regardless of how they are truly feeling (“People Use Emojis to Hide, as well as Show, Their Feelings,” 2023). People also tend to express strong emotions with emojis that are more aligned with their true emotions in more private contexts or with close friends (Liu, 2023). Emojis are used in digital communication because it is a way for people to convey the emotions they think others want them to express.
Emoji usage has a major psychological component and one’s choice of emojis can be impacted by their personality, but they can also be used by others to infer the personality or emotions of someone they may have never met in person. This makes it especially important to continue to study emoji usage, given the role they play in our perceptions of people and social behaviors.
About the Author
Suhanee Mitrogotri is a rising junior at Harvard College, concentrating in Neuroscience.
References
Emojis have been suggested to play a role similar to nonverbal signals in face-to-face interactions. They help to establish a social presence, promote social connectedness, and reduce conflictual online behaviors (Boutet et al., 2021). In short, emojis carry social information. Often, individuals make assumptions about the social behaviors of people online based on their emoji usage. It has been shown that individuals who use a lot of positive emoticons on Facebook are perceived as more agreeable, conscientious, and open (Wall et al., 2016). Interpretation of emotional tone is also enhanced when the emotional valence of emoticons matches that of the verbal message (Filik et al., 2016). It is the natural human tendency to make assumptions about a person’s personality based on their online presence. Therefore, it is important to understand where these assumptions stem from and how they play into emoji usage.
These human tendencies can be explained by the notion of “display rules,” which are socially learned standards that regulate the expression of emotion (APA Dictionary of Psychology). In the context of emoji usage, research has shown that a person’s internal conflict is the greatest when there is an inconsistency between the emotions that they are experiencing and the emojis that they are using, and often, the “inconsistency” is due to a desire to fit in and use the emojis that others are using, regardless of how they are truly feeling (“People Use Emojis to Hide, as well as Show, Their Feelings,” 2023). People also tend to express strong emotions with emojis that are more aligned with their true emotions in more private contexts or with close friends (Liu, 2023). Emojis are used in digital communication because it is a way for people to convey the emotions they think others want them to express.
Emoji usage has a major psychological component and one’s choice of emojis can be impacted by their personality, but they can also be used by others to infer the personality or emotions of someone they may have never met in person. This makes it especially important to continue to study emoji usage, given the role they play in our perceptions of people and social behaviors.
About the Author
Suhanee Mitrogotri is a rising junior at Harvard College, concentrating in Neuroscience.
References
- APA Dictionary of Psychology. Dictionary.apa.org.
- Boutet, I., LeBlanc, M., Chamberland, J. A., & Collin, C. A. (2021). Emojis influence emotional communication, social attributions, and information processing. Computers in Human Behavior, 119, 106722.
- Filik, R., Țurcan, A., Thompson, D., Harvey, N., Davies, H., & Turner, A. (2016). Sarcasm and emoticons: Comprehension and emotional impact. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69(11), 2130–2146.
- Gaube, S., Tsivrikos, D., Dollinger, D., & Lermer, E. (2018). How a smiley protects health: A pilot intervention to improve hand hygiene in hospitals by activating injunctive norms through emoticons. PLOS ONE, 13(5), e0197465.
- Haasch, P. The use of these 6 emojis spiked during quarantine, according to Twitter. Insider.
- Joubert, M. How the emoji could help democratise online science dialogue. The Conversation.
- Kariryaa, A., Rundé, S., Heuer, H., Jungherr, A., & Schöning, J. (2020). The Role of Flag Emoji in Online Political Communication. Social Science Computer Review, 40(2), 089443932090908.
- Liu, M. (2023). Are you really smiling? Display rules for emojis and the relationship between emotion management and psychological well-being. Frontiers in Psychology, 14.
- Lotfinejad, N., Assadi, R., Aelami, M. H., & Pittet, D. (2020). Emojis in public health and how they might be used for hand hygiene and infection prevention and control. Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, 9(1).
- Lu, X., Ai, W., Liu, X., Li, Q., Wang, N., Huang, G., & Mei, Q. (2016). Learning from the ubiquitous language. Proceedings of the 2016 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing - UbiComp ’16.
- People Use Emojis to Hide, as Well as Show, Their Feelings. (2023). Neuroscience News. https://neurosciencenews.com/psychology-emoji-emotions-22706/
- Wall, H. J., Kaye, L. K., & Malone, S. A. (2016). An exploration of psychological factors on emoticon usage and implications for judgement accuracy. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 70–78.