Social Media Emoticons Need More Colours To Avoid Being Misunderstood, An Expert Warns

The authors of the study found that cheerful "smileys" were perceived as "happier" when they are yellow or orange in colour. Meanwhile, "angry" emoticons express strong emotion when presented in red.

A set of emoticons

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New Delhi: Social media emoticons need more colours to avoid being misinterpreted, an expert has warned. More colours need to be introduced to stop users "misleading" each other. 

The study, led by experts from Liverpool University, United Kingdom, and Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo, Japan, was recently published in the journal i-Perception.

Difference Between Emoticons And Emojis

Emoticons were created by American commercial designer Harvey Ball in 1969. He had designed his "smiley" as a distinctive yellow button, which went on to be known as emoticons. According to the new research, the emotional, or non-verbal impact of a message on social media may be affected by the colour of the emoticon used. 

However, there is often confusion between emoticons and emojis, both new-age hieroglyphic languages. Hieroglyphic is a system of writing that uses pictures instead of words. 

Emoticons are punctuation marks, letters, and numbers used to create pictorial icons which generally display an emotion or sentiment, according to Britannica. Also, the portmanteau 'emoticon' is derived from the words: emotional icon. 

The word 'emoji' comes from 'e' and 'moji', meaning character in Japanese. Emojis, a slightly more recent invention, are pictographs of faces, objects, and symbols. These include yellow cartoon faces with various expressions, along with families, buildings, animals, food objects, mathematical symbols, sports objects, among others. 

What Colour Codes Are Most Suitable For Different Emoticons?

The authors of the new study found that cheerful "smileys" were perceived as "happier" when they are yellow or orange in colour. Meanwhile, "angry" emoticons express strong emotion when presented in red. "Sad" emoticons were "sadder" when presented in blue or "cyan'' turquoise. And neutral emoticons were expressed best when rendered in grey.

According to the new study, "angry" emoticons presented in cool colours, and "sad" and "neutral" rendered in warm colours increased the chances of them being misunderstood.

In a statement issued by Liverpool Hope University, Professor Galina Paramei, the lead author of the study, said that misinterpretation of the context, the tone of the message, or the sender's attitude ultimately impacts the efficiency of communication. 

She added that the findings can be useful in developing communications tools in social networking sites to improve 'emotion catch-ball' in digital communications by using emoticons with congruent colour variations of conventional yellow emoticons. Catch-ball is an approach to decision-making in an organisation where ideas are pitched from one individual to another throughout the group's hierarchy and divisions. 

How Do Colours Of The Human Face Change Depending On Expressed Emotions?

The study authors suggest that the phenomenon could be related to how humans are hardwired to perceive the colour of expressed emotions in real human faces, also known as biologically ingrained face colouration.

Paramei explained that certain emotions such as anger, happiness and surprise facilitate blood flow to skin areas, making the face redder and yellower. These are approach-oriented emotions. 

She said that avoidance-oriented emotions, such as disgust, fear, sadness, and those triggered by threat, cause the blood vessels to constrict, and reduce blood flow to the face. Thus, the emotions incur bluer or greener facial colouration.

How Was The Study Conducted?

As many as 50 participants based in Japan were involved in the study, and were made to undergo a series of four laboratory-based experiments, and one online experiment. The participants belonged to the age group of 18-23 and were both male and female.

Each test was based on a set of 40 different emoticons representing four basic emotions — "angry", "sad", "surprised", and "happy", and a "neutral" expression. Each emotion was rendered in eight different colours, ranging from red through orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, and light grey.

Findings Of The Study

In most of the experiments, the participants assessed the affective meaning of different coloured emoticons before deciding whether the image was "not angry or angry", "not sad or sad", "not neutral or neutral", "not surprised or surprised", and "not happy or happy". 

Throughout both the lab and online experiments, the results were more or less consistent.

Paramei said that the "angry" emoticon was perceived as "angrier" in warm colours, especially in red and orange.

She explained that the red 'angry' emoticon had higher affective meaning than in all other colours, and the orange 'angry' emoticon was 'angrier' than in light grey. 

'Happy' emoticon was perceived 'happiest' in yellow, the corresponding affective meaning being higher than when it was rendered in purple and light grey or red, cyan, and blue.

According to Parmei, 'happy' emoticon in green had a greater affective meaning than in light grey.

Conversely, 'sad' emoticon was perceived as 'sadder' in cool colours, cyan and blue. The sad affective meaning for both these colours was higher than when it was rendered in red, orange, yellow, or green.

The 'neutral' emoticon was judged as most 'neutral' in light grey. The corresponding affective meaning was significantly higher for light grey, than for red, orange, or yellow, according to Parmei.

The 'surprised' emoticon better conveyed the intended intention when rendered in red, higher than in blue. 

On average, the colour of the emoticon accounted for a third of the meaning of the emotion attributed to the emoticon, for the study participants, the researchers found.