Emoticons and social interaction on the Internet: the importance of social context

The present study examines the influence of social context on the use of emoticons in Internet communication. Secondary school students (N = 158) responded to short internet chats. Social context (task-oriented vs. socio-emotional) and valence of the context (positive vs. negative) were manipulated in these chats. Participants were permitted to respond with text, emoticon or a combination of both. Results showed that participants used more emoticons in socio-emotional than in task-oriented social contexts. Furthermore, students used more positive emoticons in positive contexts and more negative emoticons in negative contexts. An interaction was found between valence and kind of context; in negative, task-oriented contexts subjects used the least emoticons. Results are related to research about the expression of emotions in face-to-face interaction.     

Exploring user behaviour of emoticon use among Chinese youth

The use of emoticons, particularly on smart mobile devices, has become increasingly popular among young people in recent years. The emoticon is not just a form of information transmission; it also represents a new way of life and a new trend among young people. The aim of this study was to understand the role of emoticons in the daily lives of Chinese young people, investigate how mediated communication has been improved by smart mobile devices and discover users’ preferred types of emoticon. First, a review of the literature on emoticons was conducted to explore the relationship between the evolution of the emoticon and young people’s everyday lives. Next, in-depth interviews were conducted, which yielded novel findings regarding emoticon use. Finally, a questionnaire was used to obtain data on emoticon use for statistical analysis. The findings revealed four key dimensions of emoticon use that were relevant to the research questions: accuracy, sociability, efficiency and enjoyment. These four dimensions help us to better understand the development of emoticons and their influence on the lifestyles of young people. The findings are expected to provide inspiration and suggest directions for improving the design of smart communication.     

ERP correlates of masked affective priming with emoticons

Emoticons seem to enrich computer-mediated communication by improving enjoyment, perceived richness and usefulness of information (Huang, Yen, & Zhang, 2008). Despite their extensive use over the last decades, the way emoticons affect subsequent emotional/cognitive processing is not fully understood. Here we conducted a masked priming experiment that explored the time course of the masked affective priming effect while recording event-related potentials. Type of prime (emoticon vs. word) and prime valence (positive vs. negative) were manipulated to assess their influence in the processing of positive/negative target words. Results showed a masked affective priming effect in early (N2) and late temporal windows (LPC). This effect was observed in early components for negative target words and in later components for positive target words. Furthermore, it was restricted to those targets preceded by emoticon primes. Thus, the processing of emoticons seems to be privileged when compared with the words to which they refer.     

A longitudinal study of emoticon use in text messaging from smartphones

Our goal in the present study was to understand how emoticons are used in text messaging and, in particular, how genders differed in the frequency and variety of emoticons used via this medium. Previous research has found small and sundry differences in emotive expression online suggesting that technology has closed the gender gap. However, the data collected in these studies were public. In this study, we collected real portions of private communications data from individuals’ smartphones over a 6-month period. SMS messages, in general, were not used very much overall, with only 4% of all messages containing at least one emoticon. Still, differences between genders manifested in the amount and variety of emoticons used. Females sent more messages with emoticons; however, surprisingly, males used a more diverse range of emoticons.     

Determinants of emoticon usage in mobile instant messaging: a construal level theory perspective

Mobile instant messaging is experiencing immense growth, and using emoticons has become a prevalent and highly popular means of communication. The small digital images are ubiquitous, from smartphone applications to social media, and people delight in sending them. Drawing from construal level theory, the aim of this research is to examine the underlying mechanism that drives the usage of emoticons and its usage enjoyment. People with experience using mobile instant messaging were recruited to participate in an online survey, resulting in 202 usable questionnaires. The research model was tested empirically. Covariance-based structural equation modelling was used to analyze the data. The findings highlight that the determinants of individual’s emoticon usage are driven by a dual-route path. One is the self-concept route, where self-image congruity between emoticons and individuals drives psychological ownership, which in turn influences word of mouth (WOM) intention and perceived enjoyment of emoticon use. The other is the utility route, driven by emoticons’ familiarity and perceived synchronicity. The findings reveal the importance of emoticon usage through a contextual lens that shows that a dual-route path has a prominent impact upon these digital-based communication behaviours, which provides important managerial implications.     

Enhancing the impact of online hotel reviews through the use of emoticons

Online consumer reviews (OCRs) have received increasing scrutiny in recent years. The present study focuses on the effect of OCRs on consumers’ perceptions and attitudes, when pictorial representation of consumer emotions is used in online hotel reviews. A 2?×?2 experimental study is designed to examine the effect of two independent variables: review valence (positive vs. negative) and emoticons use (no emoticons vs. emoticons). Research findings show that positive OCRs result in more positive attitude and higher booking intention. Interestingly, the presence of emoticons in negative reviews strengthens the review credibility and usefulness, but attenuates consumers’ attitude towards the hotel and their booking intention. Managerial implications and research opportunities are discussed.     

How affective technologies can influence intimate interactions and improve social connectedness

Affective computing holds the promise of creating effortless, integrated, and automatic ways of communicating emotions within our intimate social network. This could augment awareness systems and connectedness devices, reducing loneliness and improving health and well-being. Through two experiments, we investigate the effects of quantity and automaticity of emotion communication on perceived intimacy in mediated settings. In the first experiment (N=48), we manipulated the number of communicated emoticons. Results show that increases in communicated emoticon quantity lead to strong increases in perceived intimacy. In the second experiment (N=34), we compare automatic and user-initiated communication of emoticons. Results show that user-initiated communication of emoticons is experienced as more intimate than automatic communication. These results are discussed in light of the interpersonal process model of intimacy and can help the design of applications aimed at improving social interactions through affective communication technology.     

Exploring the potential effects of emoticons

Instant messaging (IM) has shown signs of becoming one of the main stream communication applications for users, like e-mail. Many people maintain constant contacts with multiple friends and relations via IM simultaneously whenever they are online, whether working on other applications or not. In addition to allowing instant exchange of text information, a unique feature of IM is its use of graphical icons that express emotions, known as emotional icons or emoticons. We explored their potential effects. Our model, based on prior theory and research, was tested using data collected from student users; it was analyzed to reveal potential effects of emoticons on various factors related to the use of IM. Our study used structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis; the results showed that the user of emoticons felt a positive effect on enjoyment, personal interaction, perceived information richness, and perceived usefulness. Our results suggested, however, that emoticons were not just enjoyable to use, but also a valuable addition to communication methods.     

“Turn that frown upside-down”: A contextual account of emoticon usage on different virtual platforms

Evidence highlights the prevalent usage of emoticons within digital forms of textual communication and the impact on the recipient. However, little evidence demonstrates the interpersonal functions for the user and whether this varies as a product of virtual platform. This formed the basis for the current study in which participants (N = 92) provided open-ended accounts of their reasons for using emoticons across three virtual platforms (email, text message, and social networking site), and their general emoticon usage across these. Responses revealed a number of themes on reasons for emoticon usage. The first was; “aiding personal expression”, with sub-themes of; “establishing emotional tone”; and “to lighten the mood”. Other themes were “reducing ambiguity of discourse” and “appropriateness of context”. Overall, there was consistency across platforms, on both the personal and interpersonal functions which emoticons served. However, some disparity was identified as email platforms were deemed inappropriate for emoticon use, regardless of the fact that emoticons were recognised as important emotional aids for communication. Taken together these findings highlight the importance of emoticon usage for the user, through a contextual lens to recognise the influential factors upon these behaviours and the implications this has for digital text-based communication. In this regard, this contributes further conceptualisation of one aspect of hyperpersonal communication within virtual interactions, and how different platforms may permit these self-presentational efforts to a greater or lesser extent.     

An exploration of psychological factors on emoticon usage and implications for judgement accuracy

Given the increasing use of online platforms, the current research comprised two studies examining links between personality and emoticon use: Study 1 explored the psychological factors associated with emoticon usage on different online platforms (N = 92), and Study 2 assessed the accuracy of a group of observers' personality judgements of Facebook users (N = 54). Participants in Study 1 comprised previously unacquainted dyads who each completed measures on their Big-5 personality, self-esteem, social anxiety, self-presentation, and self-reported usage of emoticons on email, text messages and Facebook. Participants provided Facebook data and interacted online with each other for 10-min. Trait analysis revealed that agreeableness was positively related to self-reported emoticon usage on Facebook, but not in texts or emails. In Study 2, observers viewed the Facebook stimuli and made personality assessments of the dyad members. Judgement accuracy was determined by correlating these assessments with targets' own self-reported personality. Analyses revealed the highest level of accuracy for extraversion and openness. Finally, positive correlations were found between objective usage of “happy” emoticons and observers' assessments of targets’ agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness. Taken together, findings indicate the importance of specific online behaviours in self-presentation, and their impact on judgement accuracy.     

基于统计数据的微博表情符分析及其在情绪分析中的应用

表情符作为一种新兴的网络语言,受到了越来越多的微博用户的青睐。微博中出现的表情符形象直观地表达了博主的情绪,对情绪分析起着至关重要的作用。首先对大量中文微博中表情符的使用特点、分布情况和情绪表达特点进行了统计分析。然后,人工选取具有代表性且情感倾向明确的表情符作为六类基本情绪的种子表情符。根据目标表情符和六类情绪的种子表情符在微博文本中的共现情况,为其建立六维情绪向量,并将其应用于微博情绪分析。在两个数据集上的实验结果表明,本文建立的表情符情绪向量有效地提高了微博情绪识别的精度。     

Sarcasm in Written Communication: Emoticons are Efficient Markers of Intention

We present 2 studies that investigate the use of emoticons in clarifying message intent. We examine sarcasm in particular, which can be especially hard to interpret correctly in written communication. In both studies, participants were required to make the intentions of their messages clear. In the first, they clarified the meaning of existing sentences without altering the wording; in the second, they produced their own sentences. Results provided clear evidence that tongue and wink emoticons are the principal indicators of sarcastic intent, and that ellipsis is associated more with criticism, rather than with sarcasm. These findings highlight the significant role emoticons play in clarifying message intention, compensating for the absence of nonverbal cues in written communication.     

The role of presence awareness in organizational communication: An exploratory field experiment

Millions of adults currently use instant messaging (IM) in the workplace, and yet there is very little research examining how use and perceptions of this new medium affect intra-organizational communication. While one of the characteristics of instant messaging is the ability to exchange real-time communication, what truly distinguishes instant messaging from other widely adopted forms of mediated communication is the integration of presence technology, which allows parties to detect if others are online and available to communicate. In this paper, we propose a theory of productivity benefits of presence-aware communication technology, building upon past research. Based on this model, we use a quasi-experimental longitudinal research design to test how providing instant messaging to selected workgroups at a Fortune 500 company impacts employees' attitudes and work behavior.

Results suggest that IM use had a positive effect on improving productivity with participants citing reductions in voice mail and phone tag, improvements to how easy it was to see if colleagues were online and available to communicate as well as increased productivity served by back-channel communications conducted via IM. Results and future research directions are discussed.     

Unintended consequences of emerging communication technologies: Instant Messaging in the workplace

With increased global connectivity, managers are faced with new technologies and rapid organizational changes. For instance, organizations may adopt emerging technologies such as Instant Messaging in order to increase collaboration at a distance and to decrease communications costs. However, the impact and implications of these technologies for managers and employees often go far beyond the original intent of the technology designers. Consequently, in this study, instant messaging (IM) and its use in organizations were investigated through interviews with employees. Results suggest that critical mass represents an important factor for IM success in the workplace that IM symbolizes informality, and that IM is perceived to be much less rich than face-to-face communication. Further, results demonstrate that employees use IM not only as a replacement for other communication media but as an additional method for reaching others. With IM, employees engage in polychronic communication, view IM as privacy enhancing, and see its interruptive nature as unfair. The paper concludes by discussing research and practice implications for organizational psychologists.     

基于知识元模型的跨模态聊天卡通表情图像合成

传统的聊天卡通表情图像生成技术主要基于预定义的聊天卡通表情图像库,通过用户的语义描 述,进行“语义-视觉”跨模态检索,匹配合适的表情图像。但是,预定义表情图像库样本数量有限且是固定 形式的,在实际的聊天场景中常常出现表情图像的错误匹配或无合适匹配。针对此问题,聚焦于合成新的聊天 卡通表情图像而非检索,设计了一种基于知识元模型的跨模态聊天卡通表情图像合成方法,根据用户的语义描 述,即时合成对应的聊天卡通表情图像。通过表情知识元模型建立聊天卡通表情图像的内在语义逻辑关系,增 强聊天卡通表情图像合成的语义一致性。通过多生成器模型,从每个元知识点合成对应的局部图像,再经过联 合生成器整合为完整的卡通表情图像,极大地减少了训练样本需求。在公开的聊天卡通表情图像合成数据集的 测试中,该方法在语义一致性上取得了更好的结果,同时在图像质量上与现有的方法具有可比性。     

The Communicative Functions of Emoticons in Workplace E‐Mails: :‐)

CMC research presents emoticons as visual representations of writers' emotions. We argue that the emoticons in authentic workplace e‐mails do not primarily indicate writers' emotions. Rather, they provide information about how an utterance is supposed to be interpreted. We show that emoticons function as contextualization cues, which serve to organize interpersonal relations in written interaction. They serve 3 communicative functions. First, when following signatures, emoticons function as markers of a positive attitude. Second, when following utterances that are intended to be interpreted as humorous, they are joke/irony markers. Third, they are hedges: when following expressive speech acts (such as thanks, greetings, etc.) they function as strengtheners and when following directives (such as requests, corrections, etc.) they function as softeners.     

Iteration-based naive Bayes sentiment classification of microblog multimedia posts considering emoticon attributes

Microblog (such as Weibo) is an integrated social platform of vital importance in the internet age. Because of its diversity, subjectivity and timeliness, microblog is popular among public. In order to perform sentiment classification on microblog posts and overcome the limitation of text information, a fine-grained sentiment analysis method is proposed, in which emoticon attributes are considered. Firstly, the microblog texts are pre-processed to remove some stop words and noise information such as links. Then the data is matched in the sentiment lexicon, and when the first matching succeeds, the second matching is performed in the emoticon dictionary. The emoticons in the emoticon dictionary are transformed into vector form. Through these matching, the emotional features are vectorized and other text features are considered. Finally, the iterative-based naive Bayesian classification method is used for sentiment classification. The experiment results show that emoticons have obvious effect on facilitating the sentiment classification of microblog posts, and the proposed sentiment classification method achieved better than average results in term of classification accuracy compared with state-of-art techniques.

     

Mind your E-manners: Impact of cyber incivility on employees’ work attitude and behavior

We examined cyber incivility in the workplace of Singapore and also examined its impact on employee job satisfaction, organizational commitment, quit intention, and workplace deviance. Data were collected from 192 employees. Results of the survey showed that male supervisors engaged in active forms of cyber incivility while female supervisors engaged in passive cyber incivility. Regression analyses also showed that cyber incivility was negatively related to employees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Employees who experienced cyber incivility were also more likely to quit their jobs or engaged in deviant behavior against their organization. Thus, cyber incivility has negative consequences on both individuals and organizations. Consequently, it is important that firms educate employees and have appropriate policies to discourage cyber incivility.     

The impact of media on how positive,negative, and neutral communicated affect influence unilateral concessions during negotiations

In the online environment, audio and instant messaging (IM) media are quite commonly used by people to communicate with each other and make offers as they negotiate. While we know much about how IM and audio differ, we know very little about how offers that are favorable to the recipient (termed unilateral concessions) are affected by what and how people communicate over these media. The purpose of this study is twofold – (1) to examine how such concessions are influenced by communication that is either neutral, or positive, or negative in affect; and (2) to determine how the use of IM, relative to the use of audio, influences the effects of these types of communication on unilateral concessions. We develop a research model based on prosocial theory, which suggests that negotiators using audio are predisposed to interpret their partners’ motivations and behaviors in a positive (prosocial) light while negotiators using IM are predisposed to interpret their partners’ motivations and behaviors in a negative (competitive) light. We manipulate the use of IM and audio in anexperiment designed to test predictions based on this theory. Our work provides theoretical and empirical support for the idea that communications other than concessions (such as positive, neutral, and negative affect) can lead to more or less self-sacrifice depending on the medium employed, and thereby motivate negotiators to make greater or fewer unilateral concessions. Specifically, we found that (1) positive affect comments can increase unilateral concession independent of the medium used by negotiators; (2) neutral affect comments can increase unilateral concession when negotiators use audio, but have little impact when they use IM; and (3) negative affect comments can decrease unilateral concession when negotiators use audio, but can increase unilateral concession when they use IM. These results provide insights to researchers and practical guidance for negotiators.