The effect of textual language and emojis on others' emotion recognition in social behaviour

Abstract

With the increasing development of digital technology, social media and instant messaging tools have become integral to people's daily lives. Emojis, as a non-verbal addition to textual language, have enriched the emotional depth and expressiveness of digital communication. However, existing research largely overlooks the specific ways emojis contribute to enhancing the receiver's emotional understanding and accurate interpretation, leaving a gap in understanding how text and emojis interact in digital emotional communication. Using experimental design, this study explored the effects of texts and emojis on emotion recognition and communication among online users (N = 40). Results showed that while pure textual language could convey emotional intent, it often led to varied interpretations among receivers (Friedman test for emotional valence across 10 text items: χ² (9) = 287.36, P < 0.001, Kendall's W ≈ 0.80; arousal and dominance ns: χ² (9) = 10.01, P = 0.35, W ≈ 0.03; χ² (9) = 4.72, P = 0.86, W ≈ 0.01. Negative texts were rated as more unpleasant than positive ones (mean valence ≈ 7.45 - 7.80 vs. 2.68 - 5.93 on the 1 - 9 scale). In contrast, the addition of emojis clarified the emotional tone of the message, reducing ambiguity and increasing emotional resonance between the sender and receiver (valence: χ² (9) = 284.02, P < 0.001, W ≈ 0.79; arousal: χ² (9) = 267.46, P < 0.001, W ≈ 0.74; dominance ns: χ² (9) = 10.70, P = 0.30, W ≈ 0.03). Overall, emoji-text combinations produced large effects on valence and arousal (W ≈ 0.74 - 0.79), whereas dominance showed no significant change. Our findings underscore the value of emojis in enhancing digital communication and provide practical insights for improving the emotional effectiveness of social media and messaging platforms.