1. THE INFLUENCE OF EMOTICONS ON
RECEIVER PERCEPTION
LAUREN DEINTINIS
FA I T H G O VA N
B R I A N M C E LV E N E Y
P E N N S TAT E B E H R E N D

2. Source:

3. Electronic Communication
• 87% of teens engage in some form of
electronic communication (Pew Internet
Project, 2008)
• 43% of teenagers now say texting is the
number one reason they get a cell phone
(Nielson, 2010)
• Voice usage has decreased by 14%
among teens and is decreasing in all age
groups under 55 (Nielson, 2010)

4. Research Topic
• Increase in Electronic and Computer-
Mediated Communication
Loss of Non-verbal cues
• Scott Fahlman creates the “Smiley” in
1981
:-) :-( ;-)

5. Previous Research
• Some non-verbal information is not
transferred fully (McKenna &
Bargh, 2000).
• Emoticons support written communication
like non-verbal cues (Rezabek and
Cochenour, 1998)
• Emoticons affect emotions felt in receiver
(Luor, Wu, Lu & Tao, 2010)

6. Research Questions
• Who uses emoticons?
• How are emoticons used?
• Do emoticons affect the impression of
another’s personality in an online chat?

7. Participants
• 77 Participants
– 35 Males, 42 Females
– 18-39 years old, M=19 years old
• Research Participation Pool
• Ethical Guidelines and Informed consent
following IRB approval

8. Materials
Participant
Opinion of Behrend as dry
Questionnaire campus.
How many hours per day do you
spend talking with someone
electronically?
____ 0-2 ____ 2-4
____ 4-6 ____ 6-8
____ 8+ hours
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9
Please rate your current mood
(1=very negative, 5=
neutral, 9=very positive). _____

9. Materials
Perception Questionnaire
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
(1=Strongly Disagree, 5=Neutral, 9=Strongly Agree)
• My chat partner is a likeable person.
• My chat partner is persuasive in his/her argument.
• I enjoyed communicating with this person.
• I would communicate with this person again.
• I use emoticons in everyday non-verbal communication.
• I only use emoticons in conversations with friends and family.
• I use emoticons more when my conversation partner uses
emoticons.
• I use emoticons to express humor.
• I use emoticons to express sarcasm.
• I use emoticons to express sadness.

10. Materials
Big Five Personality Questionnaire (Saucier, 1994)
• Forty-item inventory
• Measured five personality traits:
– Openness
– Contentiousness
– Extraversion
– Agreeableness
– Emotional Stability

11. Informed Consent
Participant
Questionnaire
Big Five
Questionnaire
Chat About
“Dry Campus”
Article
Positive Negativ Wink None
e
Big Five
Questionnaire
Perception
Questionnaire
Debriefing/Credite
Source: d

13. Emoticon use in everyday
communication
R2 = .12, F = 3.21, p = .028*
– Agreeableness β = .19, p = .096
– Extraversion β = .14, p = .222
– Emotional Stability β = -.26, p =
.022*

14. Using Emoticons to Express Humor?
R2 = .20, F = 6.09, p = .001*
– Agreeableness β = .26, p = .031*
– Conscientiousness β = .26, p =
.028*
– Emotional Stability β = -.21, p =
.049*

15. Results: Big Five Personality Ratings Based on
7 Emoticon Type
Perceived Partner Trait Rating
Agreeableness
6
Extraversion
Emotional Stability
Conscientiousness
Openess
5
Positive Wink Negative None
Emoticon
F (3, 73) = 2.94, p = .039* F (3,73) = .877, p = .457
F (3, 73) = .844, p = .474 F (3,73) = .623, p = .602
F (3, 73) = 1.27, p = .291

16. Results: Chat Analyses
100
Percent Affirmative
80
60 46.8
40 31.2 24.7
20.8 16.9 19.5
20
0

17. Discussion
• Less emotionally stable and the more agreeable, more
likely to use emoticons.
• Chat partners are seen as more agreeable when they
pair optimistic messages with positive emoticons
– (Luor, Wu, Lu, and Tao, 2010)
• Participant’s perceived extraversion rating higher when a
wink emoticon and support statement of campus going
dry was used
– Participants may have perceived the wink as a form
of sarcasm (Walther and D’Addario, 2001)

18. Limitations
• Participants
– Limited to college students only
– Small sample size
• Time constraints
– Unable to look at both FOR and AGAINST
arguments
• Many variables
– Larger interactions could not be analyzed at
this point in research

19. Implications
• Emoticons do affect the emotions felt by
the receiver of a message
• Personality does play a role in how
emoticons are perceived in a message
Source:

20. References
Brittan, D. (1995, October). The Shadow of Rezabek, L. L., & Cochenour, J. J.
Your Smiley. Technology Review, 98(7). (1998, Fall). Visual Cues in Computer-
Mediated Communication:
Electronic Communication. (2008, May 22). Supplementing Text With Emoticons.
In Pew Internet and American Life Journal of Visual Literacy, 18(2),
Project. Retrieved April 10, 2012 201-215.
Luor, T., Wu, L., Lu, H., & Tao, Y. U.S. Teen Mobile Report: Calling
(2010, March 5). The Effect of Yesterday, Texting Today, Using Apps
Emoticons in Simplex and Complex Tomorrow. (2010, October 14). In
Task-Oriented Communication: An Nielsen Wire. Retrieved April 9, 2012
Empirical Study of Instant Messaging.
Computers in Human Behavior, 26, 889- Walther, J. B., & D’Addario, K. P.
895. (2001, Fall). The Impacts of Emoticons
on Message
McKenna, K. Y., Bargh, J. A. (2004, July Interpretation in Computer-Mediated
11). The Internet and Social Life. Annual Communication. Social Science
Review, 55(57), 573-590. doi: 10.1146 Computer Review, 19(3), 324-347. doi:
10.1177/089443930101900307.

21. Acknowledgments
We would like to thank our faculty
advisor, Dr. Dawn Blasko, for her continued
support and guidance throughout the
duration of the study. We would also like to
thank Dr. Robert Light, the senior associate
dean of the Penn State Behrend Research
Office, for supporting this study with a
research grant.