New Research Investigated The Role Emojis Play When People Express Or Mask Their Emotions During Digital Social Interactions
Have you ever hidden a negative emotion while interacting with someone in person? Think back to the last time you received negative feedback at work, a Christmas gift you didn’t really love, or an off-hand comment by a family member.
This decision to hide negative emotions is known as a display rule, which helps define what responses are socially appropriate.
While display rules can boost interpersonal relations, though, they can also have an adverse effect– as people actively choose and change how they express feelings.
And as more communication moves online via social media, scientists have become particularly interested in the role emojis play while expressing emotions in different situations.
“As online socializing becomes more prevalent, people have become accustomed to embellishing their expressions and scrutinizing the appropriateness of their communication,” explained Moyo Liu, who recently published a study on this topic in Frontiers in Psychology.
“However, I realized that this may lead us to lose touch with our authentic emotions.”
For the study, Liu recruited a group of 1,289 participants who all used the most-downloaded emoji keyboard– known as Simeji– in Japan. The goal of the research was to determine how emojis were used to either express or mask emotions.
Prior studies have already revealed that people used emojis as symbolic equivalents of facial expressions. But, there was a difference between the emotions expressed and the emotions actually experienced.
This represents a major pain point with display rules– because if the disconnection between experienced emotions and expressed emotions becomes too large, people can become emotionally exhausted.
(JLco) Julia Amaral – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Additionally, display rules have a larger impact on negative emotions, which are typically considered more inappropriate to express in social situations. There are differences here in terms of closeness and gender, too.
People often find it more acceptable to express true emotions to those they are closer to. At the same time, it can be deemed more acceptable for one gender to express emotions as opposed to another.
“With online socializing becoming ever more prevalent, it is important to consider whether it is causing us to become detached from our true emotions,” Liu said.
“Do people require a ‘shelter’ to express their genuine emotions, and is it possible to break free from pretense and share our true selves in online settings?”
Liu set out to investigate these discrepancies and collected demographic data from all of the participants. They also answered subjective questions about well-being and rated how frequently they use emojis.
Then, the participants were provided with messages for various social contexts. They were instructed to respond to the messages as they typically would before rating the intensity of their emotional expression.
This exercise confirmed that people opt to express more emotions using emojis in private situations or with close friends.
On the flip side, the participants expressed the least amount of emotion toward individuals of perceived higher status.
When the participants expressed intense emotions, the emoji used matched– except for when certain participants felt inclined to mask their real emotions. In these cases, a smiling emoji may have been used to hide a negative emotion.
So, emojis with negative connotations were not used frequently– only being sent when negative emotions were felt very strongly.
Finally, in terms of mental health, Liu learned that participants who reported higher subjective well-being tended to express emotions with emojis as compared to those who masked their emotions.
Liu did note that the Simeji keyboard is highly popular among young women– which meant that the sample was skewed toward both women and Gen Z. So, a larger and more representative study may be warranted for future research.
“First, the highly gender-imbalanced sample may have led to stronger results. Future research should explore potential gender differences in emoji display rules and examine the structural issues surrounding the formation of these emotion cultures,” Liu detailed.
At the same time, Japanese culture emphasizes the concealment of negative emotions and prioritizes interpersonal harmony. So, Liu noted how this fact may have influenced the results as well.
Nonetheless, this study represents a starting point for exploring how emojis aid or inhibit emotional expression, and Liu is interested in continuing this research among more demographic groups.
“I would welcome the opportunity to expand this study and investigate the display rules for emoji across different genders and cultures. Collaboration with scholars from diverse cultural backgrounds would be invaluable to this endeavor, and I am open to any contact.”
To read the study’s complete findings, visit the link here.
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