Emojis may be fun to use for casual conversations and chit-chat with friends, but a new study might push you to refrain from using them at work.
Tel Aviv University researchers in Israel said that the use of these graphics and pictures in emails might signal "less power" for the employees, according to their latest study.
Employees Who Use Emojis in Email Are 'Less Authoritative'
According to the recent report from The New York Post, those workers who got used to using emojis when sending an email at work could be deemed as "less authoritative."
This means that those who utilize these representations were seen to be "less powerful" so that raised a flag for the researchers.
"Today we are all accustomed to communicating with pictures, and the social networks make it both easy and fun. Our findings, however, raise a red flag: in some situations, especially in a work or business environment, this practice may be costly, because it signals low power," the researchers wrote about the study.
In addition, they also warned the employees to be more careful in using emojis. They said that people should think twice" before doing that in their organization.
Related Article: The Crying-Laughing Emoji Millennials Use Isn't Cool Anymore, According to Gen Z
The Experiment About the Use of Emojis
To understand the impact of emojis on the perception of other people in a workplace, the Israeli team conducted a series of tests for the research.
Initially, some participants were asked to visualize shopping at a supermarket. A verbal logo of the Red Sox was presented to some of them while others viewed a pictorial version of the icon.
Based on the results, the researchers concluded that those wearers with writing on the t-shirt were seen to be more powerful than those who only glimpsed on the logo, per Daily Mail.
62% of the respondents favored those individuals with the verbal profile. Dr. Elino Amit, a co-writer in the study, asked what these pictures mean for the people.
She continued that the "visual" messages are often tied up to social proximity. This means that less powerful people want to achieve this compared to their counterparts.
To view the full study entitled "Medium is a powerful message: Pictures signal less power than words," visit Science Direct for more details.
Emoji as Replacement For Pin Numbers
Almost seven years ago, Tech Times spotted research about the use of emojis as a representation of people's PIN codes. According to this old report, some users preferred to stick with these emojis so they could recall their numbers much better.
The experts viewed the young generation as adaptive to new technology by using these graphical representations. This also paved the way for smoother communication between them.
Since using numbers could be confusing sometimes, other people creatively thought that this new idea will work for those who fear forgetting their passcodes.
Read Also: How Teachers Are Using Emojis To Help Students Learn About Shakespeare
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Written by Joseph Henry
