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Home Business NewsBusiness Emoji’s in the workplace imply incompetence

Emoji’s in the workplace imply incompetence

by
15th Aug 17 5:06 pm

A study finds

Signing off an email with a smiley face emoji may create frowns rather than the desired positive impact a study has found.

The study by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel found that including emoji’s, in particular the smiley face emoji, ‘may not create a positive impression and could even undermine information sharing.’

“Our findings provide first-time evidence that, contrary to actual smiles, smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence,” explained Dr Ella Gilkson a post-doctorate fellow at BGU’s Department of Management in the Guildford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management.

She revealed: “In formal business e-mails, a smiley is not a smile.”

“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,” she added.

“We found that the perceptions of low competence if a smiley is included in turn undermined information sharing.”

A series of experiments with a total of 549 participants from 29 different countries were conducted and found that while face-to-face smiles increased both competence and warmth, the smileys in an e-mail had no effect on the perception of warmth, and in fact had a negative effect on the perception of competence.

The study also revealed an element of sexism in emoji usage, as recipients were more likely to assume that the e-mail was sent by a woman if it included a smiley.

You may now want to rethink adding that seemingly innocent smiley face to the end of your work emails.

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