Employees who add emojis to work messages often come across as less competent. This conclusion was reached by researchers at the University of Ottawa. Gizmodo reports on this.
The experiment involved 243 adult volunteers: 134 men and 109 women. Participants were shown corporate messages in messengers. Some contained positive or negative emojis, while others did not include them.
Respondents more often identified messages without emojis as the most professional. At the same time, neutral texts with friendly smileys were also rated quite highly, although they fell short compared to the 'clean' options.
The lead researcher explained that emojis cannot be considered a neutral detail of communication. They directly influence how the interlocutor is perceived in terms of competence and appropriateness. In the future, the researchers intend to study their role in workplace communications in more detail, including their impact on dialogue development, mutual understanding, conflict resolution, and team cohesion in the digital environment.
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