Your smile works: understanding smiling face emojis in social media interactions

Previous studies on smiling face emojis mainly focus on how they are employed by the addresser for rapport management, with limited attention given to exploring the addressee’s interpretation of smiling face emojis. This study aims to explore whether smiling face emojis are interpreted as (im)polite in a virtual communication context and what factors might influence the interpretation. When carrying out the research, the author designed stimuli with 10 commonly used smiling face emojis in WeChat and then recruited 192 participants to take part in an experimental study. The results indicate that smiling face emojis enhance the politeness degree of an utterance while mitigating potential impolite intentions. They also indicate that the interpretation of politeness in utterances with smiling face emojis is influenced by age and gender. In addition, the interpretation of smiling face emojis is tightly related to the culture of politeness (礼) and internet culture. This article helps us to understand the use of smiling face emojis and the management of interpersonal relationships in a visual communication context.