Yuki's study of emoticons

• Emoticon

  • Combination of the words emotion and icon
  • Non-verbal way of expressing mood or emotion
• Aim of Yuki's study

  • To find out if there is a difference between how emoticons are understood by those in the West (USA) and the East (Japan)
• Method of Yuki's study

  • 95 students from Japan and 118 students from America (Independent groups)
  • 6 Emoticons shown with different combinations of eyes and mouths (sad/happy/neutral)
  • PPTS rated their happiness using a 9-point scale
• Results of Yuki's study

  • Japanese gave higher ratings to happy eyes, even if the mouth was sad
  • Americans gave higher ratings when mouths were happy, even if the eyes were sad
• Conclusion of Yuki's study

  • Suggests that cultural groups interpret facial expressions differently
  • Could be due to cultural norms and expectations
• Evaluation of Yuki's study (1)

  • Weakness
  • Emoticons don't represent human facial expressions
  • They do not include other skin details on a human's face that also link to facial expression
  • Results of study lack applicability to real-life situations
• Evaluation of Yuki's study (2)

  • Weakness
  • Study only investigated 2 types of emotion (happy/sad)
  • In real-life, faces express a range of expressions, not just 2.
  • Study does not give insight into how the full range of facial expressions are interpreted differently across cultures
• Evaluation of Yuki's study (3)

  • Weakness
  • Rating scales may not be the best method of measurement
  • Emotions are very complex. Rating scales reduce emotion to a single score
  • Yuki may have measured interpretation of emotion in a too simple way