Never use emoji in work emails! Smiley face emoticons make you seem incompetent, claim scientists
- Participants were asked to read a work-related email from an unknown person
- Some of the emails had smiley face emoji in them, while the others didn't
- Results showed that the smileys had no effect on the perception of warmth
- But the emoji had a negative effect on the perception of competence
- When the gender of the writer was unknown, people were also more likely to assume the email was sent by a woman if it included emoji
While you might think that adding a 'smiley' emoji to a work email helps to convey a friendly tone, a new study suggests that the practice could be more of a hindrance than a help.
Scientists indicate that using smiley face emoji in work-related emails can make you seem incompetent – especially if you don't know the recipient.
The researchers hope their findings will encourage people to think twice before adding emoji to professional emails.
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While you might think that adding a 'smiley' emoji to a work email helps to convey a friendly tone, a new study suggests that the practice could be more of a hindrance than a help. Scientists indicate that using smiley face emoji can make you seem incompetent
Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev looked at the effect of using emoji in work-related emails.
Dr Ella Glikson, one of the authors of the study, said: 'Our findings provide first-time evidence that, contrary to actual smiles, smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence.
'In formal business e-mails, a smiley is not a smile.'
The researchers conducted a series of experiments that involved 549 participants from 29 countries.
In the first experiment, participants were asked to read a work-related email from an unknown person, and evaluated their competence and warmth.
While the content of the email was the same for all participants, some included smileys, and some did not.
The results showed that the smileys in the emails had no effect on the perception of warmth, but had a negative effect on the perception of competence.
Dr Glikson said: 'The study also found that when the participants were asked to respond to e-mails on formal matters, their answers were more detailed and they included more content-related information when the e-mail did not include a smiley.
'We found that the perceptions of low competence if a smiley is included in turn undermined information sharing.'
In another experiment, the researchers compared the use of smiley emoji to smiling or neutral photos.
They found that in photos, a smiling sender was perceived as more competent and friendly than a neutral one.
In their study, the researchers found that smileys in emails had no effect on the perception of warmth, and had a negative effect on the perception of competence (stock image)
But when an email on work-related matters included a smiley emoji, the sender was seen as less competent.
Interestingly, the researchers also found that when the gender of the email writer was unknown, recipients were more likely to assume the email was sent by a woman if it included an emoji.
But this did not influence the evaluation of competence or friendliness.
Dr Glikson added: 'People tend to assume that a smiley is a virtual smile, but the findings of this study show that in the case of the workplace, at least as far as initial "encounters" are concerned, this is incorrect.
'For now, at least, a smiley can only replace a smile when you already know the other person.
'In initial interactions, it is better to avoid using smileys, regardless of age or gender.'
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