Often words take on different meanings depending on the context and, when written in a message, without the possibility of seeing the expression or hearing the tone of the speaker, they can be misinterpreted. The same happens with emojis, despite representing a universal language.
Any example?
This emoji, in the Google version, is described as “blissfully happy,” while in the Apple version, it is described as “ready to fight.”
Not to mention the most used one; while for many it is obvious that they are tears of joy, for just as many they represent tears of sadness.
A study conducted by the University of Minnesota has shown that the interpretation of emojis is influenced by individual free will and the different versions that platforms (iOS, Android, Microsoft, etc.) provide.
The researchers report: “We found that only 4.5% of the symbols examined recorded small variations in the emotion elicited, whereas, in 25% of the cases where participants evaluated the same type of symbol, participants disagreed on whether it elicited a positive, negative, or neutral emotion.” The discrepancy between interpretations increases significantly when the emoji is presented in different versions, thus on different platforms.
The study, conducted on 334 participants, required each to evaluate 125 emojis on a scale ranging from -5 (strongly negative) to +5 (strongly positive), in addition to completing other questionnaire questions, such as “what does this emoji mean to you?”. The research found that the least misunderstood ones are the “ZzZ” and the heart-eyes emoji, but the descriptions still vary from person to person.
In short, in communication, it is clear that we cannot always rely on the other’s intuition; therefore, if necessary, we should spend an extra word to avoid a laugh turning into a battle cry!
