At a time when more and more communication is happening remotely, through the use of various textual means of communication, the use of emoticons is becoming increasingly popular. It helps to better express emotions and helps to recognize the intonation with which a sentence is said.
The benefits of using pictures such as smiling faces, thumbs up, hearts, monkeys and more. however, it is controversial and may even be detrimental when it comes to professional communication.
That’s why a study published in the scientific journal Computers in Human Behavior is alarming. It turns out that men and women often interpret ordinary emojis in completely different ways, which leads to misunderstandings.
Lara Jones, a psychologist at Wayne State University, and her colleagues analyzed the behavior of more than 300 students. They examine how often young people use the emojis they are familiar with and how they interpret the usual ones they use most often.
According to the study, women are more likely to put pictures. In general, both sexes are more likely to write emoticons when communicating with closer people. The most important finding from the study is that men and women perceive the same emojis differently. It turns out that women perceive some pictures much more negatively than men.
Some of the pictures that men define as positive are interpreted by women in exactly the opposite way. This is especially true when there is a combination of different images, especially those that can be perceived with their sexual context.
The experts who conducted the study concluded that the pictures can only be used in communication between close people, for whom textual communication is not essential. This would avoid mistakes. In professional communication and especially with people with whom we do not talk via audio or video connection – the use of emoticons can rather lead to problems.
