Which emojis are which

A number of studies have confirmed the effective performance of emoji in sentiment analysis Sari et al. Besides, emoji-based sentiment analysis is language-independent and exhibits cross-language validity Guthier et al. However, other studies have shown that using emoji in sentiment analysis leads to higher emotional scores, and that this effect is more pronounced in positive comments Ayvaz and Shiha, Many studies have provided algorithms and models for emoji-based sentiment analysis, which mainly uses two kinds of techniques, sentiment lexicon, and machine learning.

The sentiment lexicon approach focuses on building an emoji emotional lexicon to support text sentiment analysis.

By human annotating, Petra et al. But because there are so many emoji, some researchers have come up with ways to build emoji dictionaries automatically.

Jiang et al. Kimura and Katsurai assigned multi-dimensional emotional vectors to emoji by calculating the co-occurrence frequency of emoji and emotional words in WordNet-Affect. Aoki and Uchida have also automatically generated emoji vectors based on the relationship between emotional words and emoji. By using the Word2Vec clustering method, Mayank et al. The machine learning method refers to train sentiment classifiers based on a corpus in order to analyze the sentiments of text Wang et al.

Machine learning can be divided into supervised learning and unsupervised learning. They are different in that the former needs a human annotated corpus while the latter doesn't. The effectiveness of using emoji as a way of training classifiers has been proven Hallsmar and Palm, and furthermore it has been shown that emoji outperform emoticons Redmond et al.

A lot of research has focused on unsupervised learning Li et al. Chen Y. Wang et al. Some research has focused on the ironic features of emoji and developed an irony detection model for emoji in order to improve the accuracy of sentiment analysis of tweets Reyes et al.

The visual features and Unicode basis of emoji make them an independent expressive modality that is different from text and pictures Cappallo et al. A lot of research focuses on conversion between emoji and other modalities such as text, picture and video. For example, Emoji2Video offers a way to search for videos using emoji Cappallo et al.

Later research has focused on the shift from other modalities to emoji. Because of the correlation between emotional categories in text and users' emoji selections, Hayati and Muis and Zanzotto and Santilli proposed two different ways to predict emoji based on text. Kim et al. The practice of text-based emoji prediction has also been validated in other languages, such as Hebrew Liebeskind et al. Emoji have played a role in improving the performance of computer hardware and software.

For example, emoji can be used to achieve diverse in-car interaction design. In order to optimize the functions of the central rear-view mirror, researchers suggest that passengers emotions can be fed back to the driver through emoji and other elements, which can enhance mutual understanding between driver and back-seat passenger Chao et al. Furthermore, emoji can also be applied in the area of password security.

Kraus et al. Compared with the Standard PIN Personal Identification Number input, a password containing emoji is easier to remember and, thus, emoji-based authentication is a practical alternative to traditional PIN authentication.

In the field of communication, research on emoji mainly focuses on two aspects: one is emoji's emotional and linguistic functions in CMC, the other is how different factors, such as individual characteristics, cultural background and system platform, influence users' preferences for emoji use. For example, Jaeger and Ares analyzed the emotional attributes expressed by 33 facial emojis, and found that most emoji contained one or more emotional meanings.

Based on their emotional distribution, Petra et al. Similar studies have found that users tend to use more emoji more in positive messages than negative messages.

Both facial and non-facial emoji exhibit a great deal of ability when it comes to expressing emotions Herring and Dainas, ; Jaeger et al. At the same time, different combinations of emojis can enrich the meanings of emotional expression.

More research in this area is referred to in section The Emotional Functions of Emoji of this paper. Individual use of emoji is influenced by many factors. The existing research can be divided into three categories: individual characteristics, cultural background and system platform.

First, the use of emoji is strongly influenced by demographic characteristics such as gender and age of users. Women use them more frequently and men use them more abundantly Tossell et al. Women use emoji more in public communication, but less in private communication Li et al.

In terms of social cognition, emoji with stronger emotional meanings are considered more appropriate and lovely for women than for men, while emoji with weaker emotional meanings but friendlier meanings are considered more appropriate for men Derks et al.

Secondly, the use of emoji is closely related to the user's cultural background. Users in different countries will use emoji with specific national or ethnic meanings Gaspar et al. Users in different countries tend to use emoji differently.

Chinese people use emoji and emoticons more often than Spaniards Lin and Chen, Emoji show a high degree of contextual sensitivity and different language types influence the use of emoji. For example, the use of emoji displays a strong correlation among English-speaking countries, while displaying lower correlation among other languages such as Italian and Spanish Barbieri et al.

Finally, different system platforms also lead to differences in emoji usage. Although emoji has a Unicode in the operating system platform, users show emoji differently in IOS, Android and Microsoft operating systems due to the limitation of these software's developmental compatibility Cramer et al.

Different social networking platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Gab and Instagram also have their own particular patterns of emoji usage. For example, users tend to use emoji more frequently and positively on Twitter than on Facebook Hall and Pennington, Gab users tend to use positive emoji to express negative emotions, thus showing irony Settanni and Marengo, More research is referred to in section Diversity of Emoji Use of this paper.

Due to their visual and emotional attributes, emoji can be used in marketing activities. Emoji play an important role in attracting attention, stimulating social interactions and enhancing the experience of consumers, along with their willingness to purchase Das et al. So it is hardly surprising that emoji are frequently used in consumer interactions Lee et al. Furthermore emoji are also used to depict consumer emotions Li et al. Their dominance in emotional expression makes them an effective tool to measure user's emotions.

Textual paralanguages like emoticons and emoji, can influence the cognition and behavior of consumers in marketing activities Luangrath et al. It has been found that using emoji can enhance the explanatory power, attractiveness, creativity and innovation of marketing activity.

With the introduction of emoji in online marketing, more young people are attracted Yakin and Eru, Ge and Gretzel indicate that social media influencers people who take on the dual roles of marketer and active user of social media can initiate online interaction by presenting emoji individually or in combination, which can attract consumers to participate in interactions. Emoji can also be a way of reflecting consumers' emotions, describing user's profiles Moreno-Sandoval et al.

It has been found that gender, age and frequency of usage do not affect consumers' ability to describe and distinguish stimuli with emoji Jaeger et al. In addition, emoji and emoticons are considered simple and intuitive ways to express food-related emotions Vidal et al. Marketers use emoji questionnaires as a common tool to measure user's emotions Jaeger et al.

However, some researchers point out that although emoji show more discriminability and simplicity than emotional words in emotional measurement, their multiple meanings could pose a barrier to the survey. Therefore, emoji questionnaires can't directly replace the existing text-based forms of sentiment survey directly.

They can, however, act as a complement to the current form Jaeger et al. In the field of behavioral science, research on emoji focuses on three aspects: motivation, preference and influencing factors.

There has been abundant research focusing on the motivations behind emoji usage. This research has found that emoji are used for managing and maintaining interpersonal relationships Chairunnisa and Benedictus, ; Riordan, b ; Albawardi, , expressing oneself Kaye et al.

As a contextual cue, emoji can help users establish an emotional tone, reduce the ambiguity of semantic expression and improve appropriateness relative to context Kaye et al. There are two aspects of emoji usage preference. One is users' selection of emoji content and the other is the degree to which there is a match between emotions expressed by emoji and real sentiments. For example, users in different countries introduce elements which are representative of their countries into emoji Sadiq et al.

In the field of linguistics, research focuses on the pragmatic functions of emoji and the possibility that they could become an independent language. Emoji have been identified as having semantic properties, and can be used both as an independent language and as a component of a paralanguage providing users with a means of communication and promoting speech acts and interaction Jibril and Abdullah, ; Alshenqeeti, ; Na'aman et al.

There are pros and cons regarding whether emoji can become an independent language. An application was developed to verify the possibility of emoji-first communication Khandekar et al.

Other researchers think emoji can't be regarded as an independent language because their meaning largely depends on surrounding text, and only when they are combined with the text can complete semantics be expressed Zhou et al.

Studies in this field mainly focus on two aspects. One is the relationship between individual psychological characteristics and emoji usage, and the other is the introduction of emoji into the scale design and the implementation of new psychological measurement tools.

Emoji usage was found to be closely related to some psychological traits such as the big five personality traits, self-monitoring, emotional stress, and others Derks et al. For example, research has shown that frequency of emoji use correlates with emotional stability, extroversion and agreeableness in the big five personality traits, but not with conscientiousness and openness Li et al.

At the same time, some studies have attempted to introduce emoji into psychometric scales and have achieved good results in actual measurements Marengo et al. In the field of medicine and public health, studies on emoji mainly focus on correcting personal behavior and improving doctor-patient communication.

Emoji can be used to guide people's behavior regarding health, and it has been shown that using emoji can reinforce correct behavior when it comes to hand hygiene monitoring Gaube et al. Furthermore, using emoji can improve communication between doctors and patients and also enhance patients' abilities to manage their own health Balas et al.

Some researchers suggest developing a set of emoji specifically to be used for patient care, which could help patients better understand and communicate the challenges they face in health management Skiba, In addition, emoji can be used for the identification and prediction of mental illness due to their strength in emotional expression. Marengo et al. In the field of education, research focuses on the impact of emoji on learning efficiency.

It has been found that the use of emoji in classroom activities will help students better understand what they have learned Brody and Caldwell, , especially in computer-mediated teaching online learning Dunlap et al. Emoji can help young children understand abstract concepts such as security, interpersonal management and emotions and also improve their ability to express themselves Fane, ; Fane et al.

Understanding users' real emotions when they use emoji is important for future research. At present, it is difficult to accurately measure participants' true reactions through self-reporting. Categorizing emotions by amassing a corpus using big data is unable to depict users' complex emotions such as are expressed by emoji at a more detailed level, for example emotions such as shame, anger and so on.

Therefore, we hold the opinion that in the future, researchers can use some psychological methods in the corpus test to measure the physiological indexes of participants with professional equipment such as nuclear magnetic resonance, electroencephalography and multipurpose polygraphs to depict users' real emotions more accurately.

Future research could also benefit from a more qualitative approach, such as interviews and case studies to learn about emoji use in the context of real-world communication. In practice, some researchers suggest that video and screen shots can be used in concrete operations to observe and record users' choices of emoji during communication Gibson et al.

We believe that observing whether users' actual facial expressions differ from their selected emoji emotionally in communication can help researchers understand users' psychological mechanism in communication. At present, research focuses on the description of users' preference for emoji, but fails to go deeply into the underlying reasons. Users' preferences for emoji are influenced by many factors such as contextual information, interpersonal relationships, familiarity with emoji and personal interpretations other than official definitions, which are all worthwhile factors to explore.

The emergence and widespread use of stickers has impacted the status of emoji, and some research has begun to improve the user experience of stickers Shi et al. Whether stickers will replace emoji is an interesting topic for researchers. Under the impact of stickers, how to further enhance emoji's performance in emotion and semantic expression and improve user experience is also a direction worth exploring.

As part of popular culture, the development and use of emoji reflects specific political and cultural characteristics. Many researchers have interpreted emoji's social influence from different perspectives.

For example, some uncivilized use of emoji can harm public consciousness, a point which is not yet appreciated by the public Zerkina et al. Other researchers believe that the popularity of emoji reflects multicultural communication and cultural globalization Skiba, , and that there is some unconscious power behind the use of non-verbal cues like emoji Elder, , which strengthen the inequality and exploitation of our social system Stark and Crawford, For example, Leslie argues that the quantitative use of emoji in the workplace such as the use of emoji to give ratings has turned the employee into something like an on-the-shelf item in a digital economy warehouse, affecting their freedom.

The democratization of emoji selection and Unicode should also be discussed. Emoji of different skin colors have been introduced to address the lack of racial representation Sweeney and Whaley, Therefore, future research can explore the deeper meaning of emoji use from different perspectives, especially the links between emoji use and political movements, subcultural groups, and social inequality. This paper systematically reviews related research on emoji, aiming to provide a global perspective and clues for researchers interested in emoji.

This paper summarizes the developmental process, usage features, functional attributes, and fields of research related to emoji. Emoji developed from emoticons, and have both emotional and semantic functions. The use of emoji is influenced by and varies according to factors such as individual circumstances, culture, and platforms.

Ambiguity and misunderstanding may occur in different situations and cultural backgrounds. From the perspective of many fields communication, computing, behavioral science, marketing, and education , this paper comprehensively combs the research topics, methods and tools used in studies related to emoji, systematically summarizes the research status of emoji in various fields, and puts forward some new perspectives for future emoji research such as emotional association, use preference, new modalities and impacts on society.

The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author. QB contributed conception and design of the study. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Ai, W. Google Scholar. Al Rashdi, F. Functions of emojis in WhatsApp interaction among Omanis.

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Ayvaz, S. The effects of emoji in sentiment analysis. Balas, B. Thin-slice perception develops slowly. Child Psychol. Barbieri, F. ET NOW. Brand Solutions. Video series featuring innovators. ET Financial Inclusion Summit. Malaria Mukt Bharat. Wealth Wise Series How they can help in wealth creation. Honouring Exemplary Boards. Deep Dive Into Cryptocurrency. ET Markets Conclave — Cryptocurrency. Reshape Tomorrow Tomorrow is different.

Let's reshape it today. Corning Gorilla Glass TougherTogether. Whether you want to virtually give yourself a pat on the back or express support and adoration for someone else, the pleading face emoji is a strong option for social.

The red heart emoji is universally recognized as a sign of love and gratitude. Reply STOP to unsubscribe. And it makes sense. Almost cartoonish in its presence and built out of multiple stars, this emoji reminds me of Aladdin riding the clouds of the Agrabah kingdom on a magic carpet with Jasmine by his side.

Been away for a month now and started to feel a lil homesick! The face with tears of joy got pushed off the first place in , and Gen-Z TikTok users may have had a hand in it. Context matters. Of course, this is a broad analysis that only touches the surface of how we communicate online. Emoji use is different depending on the person typing and the context behind the message. Dive into our new Emojis and Emotions Report to learn more about:. Offering up analysis and data on everything from the events of the day to the latest consumer trends.

We looked at over 20bn data points across to understand how we use emojis and emotional language to express ourselves online.. By Ksenia Newton Nov 2. By Sabrina Dorronsoro Oct All of the above are positive attributes for a business setting. Other, less appropriate adjectives given as possible descriptors in our survey included rude, aggressive, unprofessional, and childish.

The first email characteristics assessed were spelling and paragraph style. Emails with spelling mistakes were mostly considered friendly at But depending on how flagrant the mistakes were, they could also seem informal Emails without paragraphs could be considered more appropriate if the tone of the communication was meant to be either friendly or approachable.

A lack of subject line was viewed as unprofessional Not only that—without a subject line the reader has no idea as to the content they are about to open, potentially leading to unread emails, especially if the sender is not recognized.

Therefore, a clear subject line is essential. Ironically, emails without a salutation or closing in the copy were considered friendly Depending on the age of the recipient and company culture, some found emojis to be unprofessional 9. However, it was almost equally as likely for an emoji to make an email more personal 9.

The last of the email characteristics we reviewed was signatures or a lack thereof. Professional signatures contain more than just a name. Like its namesake, a professional signature made an email more professional Do you really know what each emoji means?

Respondents were asked to correctly identify the meaning of 10 commonly used emojis included in the key above. They were also asked which emojis they believed to be the most misunderstood. Over half of survey takers believed this emoji signified prayer instead of its correct meaning, thank you.

Some even thought it meant to clap your hands.