Culture Determines Which Emoticon You Use

Ant writes "A LiveScience story discusses the cultural differences in interpreting facial expressions. The article notes that where you come from plays a large role in what part of the human face you use to determine another person's mood. That also includes communicating online with the usages of smiley faces. 'For instance, in Japan, people tend to look to the eyes for emotional cues, whereas Americans tend to look to the mouth, says researcher Masaki Yuki, a behavioral scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan ... In Japan, emoticons tend to emphasize the eyes, such as the happy face (^_^) and the sad face (;_;). "After seeing the difference between American and Japanese emoticons, it dawned on me that the faces looked exactly like typical American and Japanese smiles," he said.'"

Comments

No emoticons?

[eln]

So what culture am I a part of if I want to strangle someone every time they use any kind of emoticon at all?

Re:No emoticons?

[stsp]

So what culture am I a part of if I want to strangle someone every time they use any kind of emoticon at all?

Vogon.

Re:No emoticons?

[mrchaotica]

Text is very easy to mis-read, especially if it contains sarcasm or jokes.

<sarcasm>This sounds like a job for XML!</sarcasm>

The most enigmatic one

[wumpus188]

(.)(.)

I am a regular ./ reader and this one always puzzled me.

Re:Russian smileys ))))

[Dogtanian]

Finally an appropriate thread to ask this in. Could someone please explain why Russian smileys have no eyes, and typically multiple chins? Because many people in Eastern Europe really look like that... the radiation from Chernobyl had a devastating effect on the populations there.

Cultural differences on Eroticon six

[SoVeryTired]

As far as I know, this one is unique to Eroticon Six...

(.)(.)(.)