Study proves Emojis create closeness and strengthen friendships
Small smiley, big effect: emojis in text messages can increase satisfaction and perceived closeness in friendships. This is reported by communication scientist Eun Huh from the University of Texas at Austin in the journal "PLOS One".
03.07.2025, 08:18
03.07.2025, 08:39
SDA
Huh investigated how people in the USA assessed the receptiveness of their counterparts in digital communication and what role emojis played in this. To this end, 260 study participants were presented with 15 dialogs consisting of text messages and asked to imagine them as conversations with their friends. Half of them were randomly given messages with emojis, the other half without. After reading the messages, the test subjects rated on a scale how receptive they felt the other person was - as well as the perceived closeness, satisfaction with the relationship and sympathy.
Emojis make senders appear more approachable
The results show: When emojis were used, the study participants rated the receptiveness of the sender higher - which in turn resulted in greater perceived closeness and satisfaction with the relationship. When it came to sympathy, however, the effect was not found to be significant. It also made little difference whether emojis with faces - i.e. mostly smileys - or other emoji symbols such as hearts, airplanes, confetti cannons or similar were used.
According to the study, emojis added emotional depth to digital communication and enhanced interaction. Emojis also made messages more lively and could help to prevent misunderstandings. It is already known from other studies that emojis are to a certain extent the digital substitute for non-verbal expressions such as facial expressions or gestures in order to better express emotions.
Participants recruited via online platform
The author cites the fact that the test subjects did not receive any messages from actual friends and that the respective interaction was only evaluated from one direction as a limitation. The test subjects living in the USA were also recruited via an online platform that financially compensates people for completing certain tasks.
According to a study by researchers from Indiana University and the Kinsey Institute in the USA, also published in "PLOS One", people who use emojis more frequently are said to have greater emotional intelligence. Emojis are a way of conveying content and communicating more effectively.
New emojis reflect change
While classic emojis such as smiling smileys have been part of everyday digital communication for years, new ones are constantly being added - and thus also pick up on social developments: for example, the Unicode Consortium, which sets the international standard for character encoding, announced at the beginning of the year that it would be introducing new emojis for beet, fingerprints and a dead tree, among others.
"Climate change, environmental collapse and extended drought year after year are becoming part of our everyday lives," wrote Brian Baihaki, who had requested this emoji, about his proposal. Anyone can request emojis from Unicode. All you have to do is justify the added value of the submitted character.
