Emojis, a language that has become the fastest-growing in the world, are a part of our daily lives through electronic communication. In fact, they are such a big part of our lives that we use them almost 6 billion times a day.
Much of emoji use is about adding context and/or colour to what we’re trying to communicate, and often, when we feel that something might be read and interpreted as sounding a bit harsh – we’ll add a smiley face to soften the blow of the text or email.
But new research has warned against the use of emojis in a professional/workplace context.
A new study done by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel has found that using emojis in professional emails could make the person on the receiving end perceive you as incompetent. This is especially true when interacting with someone for the first time.
“Our finding provide first-time evidence that – contrary to actual smiles – smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence,” said Dr Ella Glikson, one of the researchers.
People tend to assume a smiley is a virtual smile but the study showed in the case of the workplace – at least as far as initial “encounters” are concerned – this is incorrect
“The study also found when participants were asked to respond to emails on formal matters, their answers were more detailed and they included more content-related information when the email did not include a smiley. We found that the perceptions of low competence if a smiley is included in turn undermined the information sharing.”
Published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, the study featured 549 participants from 29 different countries across the globe. They were told to read work-related emails and then rate the competence and warmth of the individual that sent the email.
Each participant received the same email, but some emails had smileys, while others didn’t. Through this exercise, researchers found that there was no perceived warmth with the emails that had smileys.Using smileys actually had an opposite effect on the receiver of the email – a perception of incompetence.
The study found that emails with emojis were assumed to have been sent by a woman.
“People tend to assume a smiley is a virtual smile, but the study showed in the case of the workplace – at least as far as initial ‘encounters’ are concerned – this is incorrect,” Dr Glikson said.
“For now, at least, a smiley can only replace a smile when you already know the other person. In initial interactions, it is better to avoid using smileys – regardless of age or gender.”
Additional source: The Telegraph
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