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Scientists Prove Emoticons Are Not Universally Understood (qz.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: The most recent such study, published Oct. 24 in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, examined how emotions expressed in symbols and pictures are understood in three nations with varying degrees of internet connectivity and access: Japan, Cameroon, and Tanzania. Psychologists from the University of Tokyo tested subjects on how well they recognized emotions in emoticons and photographs. Participants across cultures could read emotion accurately in images of real people regardless of race -- but symbolic tech expression was not universally comprehensible. The study subjects were shown photographs of happy, neutral, and sad Caucasians, Asians, and Africans and told to describe the emotions expressed in the images. Generally, participants accurately assessed the feelings expressed across the board. The researchers noted one difference: African participants tended to confuse Asian neutral and sad faces, "perhaps due to lack of exposure to the out-group [Asian] faces," they suggest.
When it came to symbols, however, the scientists found clear cultural differences in emotion recognition. Subjects from all three countries were given a tablet, on which they were asked to scroll through a series of emoticons. They were shown emoticons in the Japanese style, with happiness, sadness, and neutrality expressed in the eyes; in a western style with emotion expressed in the mouth; and "smiley face" emoticons (pictured above). The Japanese subjects fluently read emotion in emoticons, whereas subjects from Cameroon and Tanzania found emoticons utterly mystifying at similar rates. This was true both for urban and rural dwellers in both African nations. The researchers believe this is due to the varying levels of internet exposure in the three countries.
When it came to symbols, however, the scientists found clear cultural differences in emotion recognition. Subjects from all three countries were given a tablet, on which they were asked to scroll through a series of emoticons. They were shown emoticons in the Japanese style, with happiness, sadness, and neutrality expressed in the eyes; in a western style with emotion expressed in the mouth; and "smiley face" emoticons (pictured above). The Japanese subjects fluently read emotion in emoticons, whereas subjects from Cameroon and Tanzania found emoticons utterly mystifying at similar rates. This was true both for urban and rural dwellers in both African nations. The researchers believe this is due to the varying levels of internet exposure in the three countries.
is the pile of smiling pudding. Yum!
Figures.
I am shocked, SHOCKED by this news. :-|
Can I have my college tuition fees back now? I think I can put it to better use in my bathroom.
(.)(.)
Help! help!, the termites are eating my DRAM!!!
I mislabeled both. :-|
wide eyed (0_0) looks far from a deadpan face
And (T_T) looks more like a whoosh face than a crying rivers face.
I'm sure some organization had to do this to prove what everybody already knows. I won't be crying when emoticons die.
wish i had thought of it
=8====@
Call me when they figure out that emoticons really piss off some people too, not all of us are children.
The lack of understanding of many emoticons without prior exposure or explanation I thought was a well understood problem. Did we really need a study to tell us this? that is like a study to tell us that not everyone speaks the same language around the world.
Maybe they were too busy wondering how they fit a TV into something so small?
:)
Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
It used to be that scientists and researchers looked at and discovered real things, which had value to humanity and its progress. Nowadays "Science" has lost its way. You can earn a PhD in Emoticon Studies. Scientists little more than speculate about the possible chemical composition of exoplanets (based on 2 dozen pixels). But these are shoved forth as Truth and Science. And then you get the complete pseudosciences with shaky evidence or later retractions of the paper. But these are Science and it is heresy to question them, wrong or not! No wonder the feeble minded need an Alexa or Cortana to coach them through obtaining their next beer. "Breathe in, breathe out,..." .. apt.
captcha: babble"
...for using the correct term, "emoticon", and not that stupid term "emo-jumanji" or whatever the kids are saying these days. /my lawn
You don't have to go to other countries to check these results. I have gotten the most confusing emoticons while texting with my girlfriend and when I have asked her what they mean it turns out they aren't even the same as what she is seeing. I'll ask 'what is this one with the frowny face winking at me and tears flying out to the sides?' and she'll say 'what?! That isn't what it looks like.' Being an Android guy dating an iPhone girl is downright confusing.
Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
I personally have no idea what most emoticons mean, and hence avoid most if them. No need to go to Bali or wherever the fuck this study invented to get some view of the world population.
Me: "Why did you send me a message that says, blob blob blob blob blob?"
Scientists need to find better things to do.
I wonder if any historians may actually be concerned about this.
Thinking back to my college days, there is much of antiquity that is not well understood due to the inability to understand its written languages. The Rosetta Stone was an as incredible as it was rare. So much history is locked away in written language that will likely never be understood. (See this page for some examples.) A culture's language is its bridge to understanding the culture itself.
If emoticons are linguistically ambiguous, we run a risk that our culture will not be understood in the future, either.
I see psycologists but no scientists. Different worlds.
the millions and millions of dollars apple spend on creating these
a) The study subjects were shown photographs of [expressions the study designers? thought looked like] happy, neutral, and sad Caucasians, Asians, and Africans and told to describe the emotions expressed in the images.
b) Were the subjects of the photos genuinely experiencing the emotions which were [according to the study designers?] being portrayed and if not, does this measure the an ability to read a simulated emotion?
Requiem for the American Dream
...heiroglyphs understood only by ancient Egyptians and modern Egyptologists. Well... like... dohhhh...
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
fucking duh. what a waste of resources. idiots. find real justifications to exist.
I mean I get that :) is happy and :( is sad, but more generallyI figured posting a series of seemingly random images was some sort of obscure in joke. They're seriously meant to mean something?
Words aren't "universally understood" either, not even amongst native speakers of a language. Heck, a large part of the English speaking population doesn't understand the meaning of "no".
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Limited form of expression found to be limited!
More at 11.
How is this any surprise to anyone at all?
Even with ASCII based emotional indicators, there are cultural differences, it w\as only ever going to get worse when we now have to also attempt to interpret the differences between the emoji-font the sender saw when they sent it, vs the emoji font the receiver read the message with, before we even start with the bewildering confusion of subtly different icons.
Every time I type "that's OK" (ðY'ðY'OE) people get offended. I don't know why.
The interesting part of the story is that it gives some support for the old Sax Rohmer stereotype of the inscrutable oriental.
Do editors even know what their job is? It isn't just copy/paste.
You don't need to go to Africa or Japan to find these differences.
Just take a random city dweller and ask them about the meaning of the "big pile of fertilizer" emoji...
Use Lucifer's emoji message for your next study and see if _anybody_ who hasn't see this scene can understand what it means.
"Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
Anyone who has traveled the world and actually paid attention to the society around them would already know this. Only someone who lives in their parent's basement and never gets out would think that the emoji they see would be understood the same way by everyone else in the world... sad, but not surprising at all.
in the translation from the original Icelandic