How do Emoticons and Capitalisation Affect Perception of Email?
Compared with face-to-face
communication, nonverbal cues in email are lacking. But humans are fabulous at
generating meaning even when cues are sparse. Psychologists have theorised our
motivation for generating meaning is reducing levels of uncertainty and helping
predict other people’s behaviour. This might explain how, in emails, even two
simple things like capitalisation and emoticons can have important effects on
reader’s perceptions. People want to predict our behaviour, and we theirs.
Personality,
emoticons and capitalisation in email
The research on nonverbal
behaviour in emails is not as simple as emoticons are good while capitalisation
is bad. It seems both capitalisation and emoticons can evoke polarised
responses. Perhaps less polarised for capitalisation which is normally
considered a no-no in emails. Although capitalisation can also communicate
excitement and not just senseless shouting.
For emoticons, there is some
research finding they can take the sting out of a flame (a message with negative
content), while others find it doesn’t. Perhaps some of this variability in the
perception of capitalisation and emoticons comes down to personality?
The
study
Byron and Baldridge (2007)
researched this by asking college students to fill in a personality
questionnaire and then read emails from an unknown person. These were simple
requests for copies of academic papers or information about the university. Each
student was randomly assigned to read two of four differently presented emails.
Some of the emails were all capitalised, others included emoticons and the rest
neither, so the researchers could compare responses. The students then rated
the sender’s likeability.
They found that, sure enough,
using correct capitalisation and emoticons tended to make a better impression
on readers. The reader’s personality also influenced how emoticons and
capitalisation were perceived. Readers high in both extroversion and emotional
stability were likely to rate sender’s emails as more likeable if they had
correct capitalisation. As for emoticons, readers higher in emotional stability
were likely to rate sender’s emails more likeable if they used emoticons.
The opposite was also true.
This meant that for the introverted and emotionally unstable, correct
capitalisation tended not to affect the sender’s likeability, perhaps even
lowering it. Similarly, emoticons had little effect on the emotionally
unstable.
More
questions than answers
These results are interesting
but they also raise loads more questions. Emoticons may make the sender appear
more likeable, but do they also make them seem less professional? Can emoticons
really take the sting out of a flame? In this study, they only used a smiley
face :-) but what about all the other emoticons? And what if you’re using
emoticons other people don’t understand?
These questions are multiplied
if more advanced ways of communicating emotion in email become a reality.
Researchers are currently working on electronic mail systems which involve
expressive typography, graphical components as well as old fashioned words to
convey emotion. Whether this will provide a significant and useable step
forward in email over punctuation, italicisation and capitalisation, we shall
have to wait and see. Until then, WE’VE GOT QUITE ENOUGH QUESTIONS TO ANSWER
ABOUT EMAIL JUST AS IT IS :-)
Sorry.
About
the author
Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD
is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from
University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology.
He has been writing about
scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book
“Making Habits, Breaking Habits” (Da Capo, 2003) and several ebooks.
SOURCE: PSYBLOG
Comments
Post a Comment