Emojis in work e-mails may portray low competence: Study

Jerusalem : Using a smiley face emoji or similar emoticons in work-related e-mails may not create a positive impression and could actually portray low competence, a study suggests. "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," said Ella Glikson, a post doctorate fellow at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel. Researchers conducted a series of experiments with a total of 549 participants from 29 different countries.

In one experiment, participants were asked to read a work-related e-mail from an unknown person and then evaluate both the competence and warmth of that person. All the participants received similar messages. Some included smileys while others did not.

Researchers found that in contrast to face-to-face smiles, which increase 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 findings show that in case of a photograph, a smiling sender was perceived as more competent and friendly than a neutral one. However, when an e-mail on formal work-related matters included a smiley, the sender was perceived as less competent.

The smiley did not influence the evaluation of the sender's friendliness, researchers said. The team also found that when the gender of the e-mail writer was unknown, recipients were more likely to assume that the e-mail was sent by a woman if it included a smiley. However, this attribution did not influence the evaluation of competence or friendliness.