Abstract
Emojis are frequently used by people worldwide as a tool to express one’s emotional states and have recently been considered for assessment in research. However, details regarding the ways in which they correspond to human emotional states remain unidentified. Thus, this study aimed to understand how emojis are classified on the valence and arousal axes and to examine the relationship between the former and human emotional states. In an online survey involving 1082 participants, a nine-point scale was employed to evaluate the valence and arousal levels of 74 facial emojis. Results from the cluster analysis revealed these emojis to be categorized into six different clusters on the two axes of valence and arousal. Further, the one-way analysis of variance indicated that these clusters have six valence and four arousal levels. From the results, each cluster was interpreted as (1) a strong negative sentiment, (2) a moderately negative sentiment, (3) a neutral sentiment with a negative bias, (4) a neutral sentiment with a positive bias, (5) a moderately positive sentiment, and (6) a strong positive sentiment. Therefore, facial emojis were found to comprehensively express the human emotional states.
Highlights
How facial emojis are classified on these two axes and how people recognize the arousal and valence levels from emojis remain unclear
A hierarchical cluster analysis was performed on the valence and arousal levels of each emoji to classify similar emojis into several clusters
This study aimed to assess how various facial emojis are classified in the valence and arousal axes, examine the relationship between these emojis and human emotional states using the core affect theory[4], and understand how people recognize arousal and valence levels from emojis
Summary
Emojis are frequently used by people worldwide as a tool to express one’s emotional states and have recently been considered for assessment in research. Jaeger et al.[5] and Phan et al.[10] used only a set of 33 and 6 facial emotions to assess emotional states, respectively It remains unclear how emojis excluded from the scope of previous studies are categorized on the arousal and valence axes. This clarification would increase the number of emojis considered in research to evaluate human emotional states, thereby facilitating a more detailed analyses. This study aimed to understand how various facial emojis used by smartphone systems (Unicode 13.0) are classified into the valence and arousal axes It sought to explore the relationship between these emojis and human emotional states based on the core affect theory, and how people recognize arousal and valence levels from emojis. We hypothesized that facial emotions could be classified into multiple clusters on these axes
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
