Research notes...

The Impacts of Emoticons
on Message Interpretation in
Computer-Mediated Communication
JOSEPH B. WALTHER
KYLE P. D’ADDARIO
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

http://ssc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/19/3/324

- Emoticons are graphic representations of facial expressions that many email users embed in their mes-sages. These symbols are widely known and commonly recognized among computer-mediated communication (CMC) users, and they are described by most observers as substituting for the nonverbal cues that are missing from CMC in comparison to face-to-face communication.

- Another way in which e-mail users may imbue their messages with social meaningis
through the creation and use of“emoticons,”“smiley faces,”or“ relational icons”created
with typographic symbols that appear side ways as resembling facial expressions. As early as
1982, Hiltzand Tur off stated that “computer conferees also find ways to overcome the lack
of personal contact. They have even devised ways of sending computerized screams, hugs
and kisses”

- Rezabek and Cochenour (1998) defined emoticons as “visual cues formed from ordinary typographical symbols that when read sideways represent feelings or emotions” (p. 201). Thompson and Foulger (1996) referred to them as “pictographs” and described their use in CMC “to express emotion or as surrogates for nonverbal communication” (p. 226) “suggestive of facial expression . . . [add-ing] a paralinguistic component to a message” (p. 230).

- Danet, Ruedenberg-Wright, and Rosenbaum-Tamari (1997) also reflected this assump-
tion. Danet et al. defined emoticons as “icons for the expression of emotion, or for marking
one’s intent as non-serious. . . . The best known ones are a smile, wink, and frown, respec-
tively: :-) ;-) :-(.”

- In a content analysis of roughly 3,000 messages, they found that 13.2% contained emoticons (or intentional mis- spellings, punctuation, and other CMC-based textual graphics, which the researchers con- tend function in similar fashion). They also found that women (i.e., users using stereotypical female names) used these symbols approximately twice as frequently as men did. If one is to accept the use of these markers as attempted nonverbal usage, and therefore an attempt at an open display of affect, these findings support classic structures of gender communication (Quina, Wingard, & Bates, 1987), according to Witmer and Katzman. Wolf (2000) reported a similar propensity for emoticons being used primarily by women. She also found them used more frequently in mostly female online groups than in mostly male groups. In an interesting cross-gender accommodation, Wolf (2000) observed that in mixed-sex discussions, men’s use of emoticons rose to the level of women’s, rather than vice versa. However, women used emoticons primarily to express humor rather than sarcasm, whereas men used them for sar- casm more than humor. Rezabek and Cochenour (1998) also content-analyzed emoticon use online, but unlike Witmer and Katzman (1997), they limited their analysis to face representa- tions. In four academic Listservs, emoticons were present in 19.15% to 75% of messages, and in a sample of Usenet groups, 25% of messages. Approximately 53.5% of the face repre- sentations were :-) or :), 10% were ;-), whereas only 7.5% were :-( or :( in the combined samples.
*very important note for my research, actually , by rough generalization it makes me think that the different patterns of emoticons usage are outcome of different emotional behaviors, people that tend to be more emotional in face to face communications will use more emoticons.

- “if verbal and nonver- bal cues were relatively equal in strength when judged separately, the nonverbal cues domi- nated verbal ones when they were paired together”, “For emotive, relational, or attributional . . . outcomes, nonverbal cues account for varying but greater amounts of the meaning than verbal ones”.

- “the face is particularly important in judging positivity because receivers associate the smile with positivity, a link that has no analogue in the body and the voice”