The Effects of Emoticons on Communication
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Hsu, Yin-Chih
Abstract
The use of emoticons is a new topic in the field of Computer-mediated communication (CMC). There are not much empirical studies in this field, as previous studies on emoticons mostly focused on its effects on online message interpretation. The present study integrates two social-context factors that are keys to emotions expression in face-to-face communication – personal relationship and purpose of interaction, to further examine emoticons’ utility on the accuracy of understanding and the communicators’ perception of helpfulness through real-life on-line interactions. We conducted an experiment which paired participants off to engage in on-line discussions on assigned topics. Our empirical results show that participants with availability of emoticons had better accuracy of understanding in task-oriented communication. At the same time, with emoticons communicators’ perceived helpfulness during CMC was better in most conditions. To conclude, emoticons give a chance for communicators to express handily and enrich information richness in task-oriented contexts, and its’ worth in CMC is proved in this research.
Subjects
Emoticons
Social interaction
Social context
CMC (Computer-mediated communication)
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