Emojis are not a universal language: gender, age and culture influence their interpretation | Technology

Emojis are part of our daily lives. Chat messages, posts and comments on social networks are almost always accompanied by, among other things, yellow faces, animals, hearts, even flames of fire, depending on the feelings you want to reinforce. These small, brightly colored symbols are so common that some people even interpret their absence in messages as a sign that the person they are talking to is rude or angry. However, not everyone interprets or identifies them in the same way. Researchers at the University of Nottingham say age, gender and culture can influence how we understand them.

In his workshop, published in the magazine Plos One In February, it had 523 participants of Chinese and British origin aged between 18 and 84. The authors used six emojis from four different formats (Apple, Android, Windows and WeChat) representing six emotions: happiness, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise and anger. This shows that women are slightly more accurate in classifying happy, fearful, sad, and angry emojis. Ruth Filik, lead author of the research, believes it’s a question of interpretation rather than accuracy. In this case, they more often labeled the emojis the same way as the researchers, he notes.

There was no difference between women and men in recognizing faces depicting surprise and disgust. In fact, the latter emotion was the only one in which no differences were found by age, gender, or culture when identifying the face that represented it. Xandra Garzón, specialist in the figure of women in the digital world, raises the possibility of a greater tendency to show only positive emotions, which relegates symbols of negative emotions to less frequent use. In this way, less use could mean more difficulty identifying or interpreting it.

Regarding age, there is a “general advantage in accuracy for younger participants,” the text states. One factor taken into account is participants’ degree of familiarity with each symbol assessed. This lack of habit may explain the differences in results compared to younger people, explains Filik. Garzón believes that family WhatsApp groups are a clear example of generational differences: “The use is totally different to the point that it often escapes us older people. »

Culture is the aspect that makes the most difference. British participants more accurately associated faces with the corresponding emotion than Chinese participants. The authors indicate in the study that the use of these symbols could be at the origin of this result. Chinese respondents tend to represent these emotions with completely different emojis: for example, they use a happy face with negative connotations like sarcasm.

Agnese Sampietro, professor of Spanish at the Jaume I University (UJI) and researcher at the same institution, points out that it is difficult to find functions of emojis that can be considered universal and that it is important to know how these symbols are presented to those interviewed. In a decontextualized way, it is normal that there are different interpretations, but if a certain context is given, that can perhaps help, explains the linguist, who has several studies on the subject. Sampietro also points out that differences in emoji identification are not necessarily a sign of misunderstandings or communication barriers.

Cristina Vela, Vice Dean from the University of Valladolid (UVA) and author of the book Emojis in written digital interaction (Arco Libros – La Muralla, 2021), explains that these symbols take on their meaning with the use given to them. “We interpret them with use and this occurs in a speech community marked by a culture.”

Vela points out that studies such as the one from the University of Nottingham help to highlight interesting aspects of current communication and can help improve it. Research in the virtual domain is increasingly important because part of our lives takes place in these virtual environments, explains Garzón, specialist in the figure of women in the digital world. “The Internet is where we play, where we work, where we do absolutely everything. »

Communication evolves

Emojis help understand what the person sending the message really wants to express and give “a pop of color,” says Sampietro. “It allows you to personalize a conversation that might be too flat with the default format of social networks,” he adds. Garzón says they make communication simpler and smoother, “even more effective.” Although their use is not entirely due to these aspects, there are also those who use them because “it’s pretty,” says Vela, a linguist at UVA.

The interpretation and its use depend on who the interlocutor is. In a work conversation The same emojis are not used as in a conversation with family or friends, because the relationship between the interlocutors in the first case is generally less close than in the second, illustrates Sampietro. Garzón points out that the communicative function is also different: “Probably, what I feel about something is not as interesting in the work group and some emojis don’t make sense there. »

The symbols and their interpretation have changed over time. These tiny pictograms have become more and more complex and diverse. In 2015, emojis representing body parts or people performing actions made it possible to change skin tone. The same year, they also included same-sex couples. For Garzón, these are details that may seem banal, but which are not at all. It’s a question of identity: “These types of digital representations are absolutely fundamental. »

These symbols have now become part of identity, so much so that we could even recognize certain interlocutors in a chat only thanks to the emojis they send, defends Garzón. Emojis facilitate communication, but we give them meaning, he concludes.

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