Older people are more likely to use emojis incorrectly and their meanings can vary wildly from country to country, a new study has found.

Scientists at the University of Nottingham found that older texters were less successful than younger people when trying to match emojis to the emotion they are supposed to represent.

This could mean older people are more likely to send an inappropriate emoticon, such as a smiley face, or an angry face, at the wrong time.

Woe betide any grandchildren whose grandparents decide to make an aubergine casserole or a peach cobbler. And hopefully if your great aunt sends you a sweating red-faced emoji with its tongue sticking out, she just means that you needs the air conditioning turned on.

Researchers asked 500 men and women from the UK and China to identify the emotions being portrayed in a series of the little yellow icons popular in text messages and social media posts.

They also found that British people had more difficulty recognizing the ‘disgusted’ face, possibly because the infamously reserved Brits are less likely to express that emotion, holding their distaste closer to the vest.

Researchers asked 500 men and women from the UK and China to identify the emotions portrayed in a series of emojis, those little yellow icons popular in text messages. Women edged out men as more perceptive in reading the icons' meaning

Researchers asked 500 men and women from the UK and China to identify the emotions portrayed in a series of emojis, those little yellow icons popular in text messages. Women edged out men as more perceptive in reading the icons’ meaning

Study participants looked at emojis representing happiness, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise and anger - across multiple tech operating systems which vary in emoji design (above)

Study participants looked at emojis representing happiness, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise and anger – across multiple tech operating systems which vary in emoji design (above)

Woe betide any grandchildren whose grandparents decide to make an aubergine casserole or a peach cobbler

A peach emoji

Woe betide any grandchildren whose grandparents decide to make an aubergine casserole or a peach cobbler

Study participants looked at emojis representing happiness, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise and anger.

Generally, the Westerners did better than the Chinese at recognizing emoji emotions but struggled with the ‘disgusted’ face, which has down-turned features with a wobbly mouth, furrowed brow and clenched eyes. The researchers said this may be due to ‘specific emotional experiences in different cultures.’

They also noted that in China, the ‘smile’ face was often used to represent emotions other than happiness. The study was published in science journal Plos One.

Dr Hannah Howman, a lead author of the study said: ‘Our findings in relation to age and culture highlight the importance of context in emoji use, for example, the possibility that participants in China may commonly use the “smile” emoji for different purposes than to signify happiness, which means some “universal” facial emotions may not be “universal” when they transfer to emoji.

‘The current results have important implications when considering emoji use in online communication, for example, with conversation partners from different cultures or of different ages.’

Britain is one of the most emoji-hungry nations on earth, with half of us sending at least one every day. They are also popular across age groups, with little variation between the generations.

The researchers found that English posts on X, formerly Twitter, were also littered with emojis – more so than on China’s Weibo social media platform. 

The study also found that men struggle to grasp the meaning of emoji faces because they are less sensitive than women,

Women did better across the board. The researchers said this may be because women are more sensitively tuned to recognizing the emotions of human babies.

Yihua Chen, of Nottingham University, said: ‘Women demonstrate higher accuracy in emotion recognition than men. One potential explanation is the “primary caretaker hypothesis.”‘

‘Accurate and rapid identification of infant emotions, especially facial expressions, is a very important part of infant care, as infant mortality has generally been high throughout human evolution.’

The new emoji coming to your iPhone later this year were revealed last month. Among them are a lime, a phoenix, a brown mushroom, a broken metal chain, two shaking heads and four gender neural families.

There’s also more than 100 people facing sideways in a range of skin colours and genders, including some holding canes and others in wheelchairs.

In November last year, one boy claimed that urgent changes were needed to one of the most popular emoji – the ‘nerd’.

Experts from musicMagpie have revealed Britain's top 10 emoji 'icks'

Experts from musicMagpie have revealed Britain’s top 10 emoji ‘icks’

Teddy Cottle, 10, from Oxfordshire, has launched a petition calling for Apple to change the ‘offensive and insulting’ character.

He claimed that the prominent front teeth give the wrong impression of glasses-wearers and suggests that a smile would be more appropriate.

‘It’s making me feel sad and upset, and if I find it offensive there’ll be thousands of people around the world that find it offensive too,’ he said.

And last year, experts from musicMagpie have revealed Britain’s top 10 emoji ‘icks’.

Their findings suggest that several popular icons have us cringing – with the ‘two-hearts’ emoji topping the list as the most ick-inducing. 

Liam Howley, Chief Marketing Officer at musicMagpie said: ‘With so much of our communication being conducted by technology devices these days, it’s no wonder the ick has transcended the physical world and entered the digital world.’

Emojis are a standard feature on smartphones and computers. The cartoony faces expressing various emotions date back to the 1990s and have since become a cultural fixture.

In 2015, in fact, Oxford Dictionaries made the ‘crying with laughter’ emoji its ‘word of the year.’ Casper Grathwohl, vice president of Oxford University Press, said at the time: ‘Traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st century communication.’

‘It’s not surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has stepped in to fill those gaps – it’s flexible, immediate, and infuses tone beautifully.’ 

‘As a result,’ Grathwohl concluded, ’emoji are becoming an increasingly rich form of communication, one that transcends linguistic borders.’

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk

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