Do you know what these emojis mean? Research finds interpretations vary depending on gender, culture, and age

Men are less sensitive than women and have a harder time understanding the meaning of emojis, a study has found.

Researchers asked 500 men and women in the UK and China to identify the emotions depicted in a series of small yellow icons popular in text messages and social media posts.

It was also found that Britons had more difficulty recognizing “disgusted” faces. Perhaps it’s because the notoriously reserved Brits are less likely to express that emotion, keeping their disgust close to their vests.

Study participants focused on emojis representing happiness, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, and anger.

Researchers asked 500 men and women in the UK and China to identify the emotions depicted in a series of emojis (small yellow icons commonly used in text messages).Women outperformed men as being able to more acutely read the meaning of icons.

Study participants examined emojis representing happiness, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, and anger across multiple technology operating systems with different emoji designs (top)

Women performed better overall. Researchers said this may be because women are more sensitive to the emotions of human babies.

“Women have been shown to be more accurate at recognizing emotions than men,” said Yihua Chen from the University of Nottingham. One of his possible explanations is the “primary caretaker hypothesis.”

“Infant mortality rates have generally been high throughout human evolution, so accurately and quickly identifying infant emotions, especially facial expressions, is a critical part of infant care.”

Westerners were generally better at recognizing emotions in emojis than Chinese people, but they struggled with “unpleasant” faces with loose mouths, furrowed brows, clenched eyes, and downcast features. Was. The researchers said this could be due to “specific emotional experiences in different cultures.”

They also noted that “smiling” faces are often used in China to express emotions other than happiness. The study was published in the scientific journal Plos One.

Britain is one of the most emoji-hungry countries on the planet, with half of its citizens sending at least one emoji every day. There is little difference between generations, and it is popular among a wide range of age groups.

Researchers found that English posts on X (formerly Twitter) are also littered with emojis, more than on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Emoji are a standard feature on smartphones and computers. His cartoonish faces expressing a range of emotions date back to the 1990s and have become a cultural fixture ever since.

In fact, in 2015, Oxford Dictionaries named the “laughing-crying” emoji as its “word of the year.” Casper Glasswohl, vice president of Oxford University Press, said at the time that “traditional alphabets are struggling to meet the rapidly increasing demands of visual emphasis in 21st century communication.”

“It’s no surprise that emojis like emojis have emerged to fill these gaps. They’re flexible, immediate, and beautifully inject tone.”

“As a result, emojis are becoming an increasingly rich form of communication that transcends language boundaries,” Glaswohl concluded.