Culture Determines Which Emoticon You Use

Ant writes "A LiveScience story discusses the cultural differences in interpreting facial expressions. The article notes that where you come from plays a large role in what part of the human face you use to determine another person's mood. That also includes communicating online with the usages of smiley faces. 'For instance, in Japan, people tend to look to the eyes for emotional cues, whereas Americans tend to look to the mouth, says researcher Masaki Yuki, a behavioral scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan ... In Japan, emoticons tend to emphasize the eyes, such as the happy face (^_^) and the sad face (;_;). "After seeing the difference between American and Japanese emoticons, it dawned on me that the faces looked exactly like typical American and Japanese smiles," he said.'"

Re:No emoticons?

[arivanov]

Case A: you are the culture that still reads the text, can understand a joke, can understand sarcasm, can use and read cultural associations including ones not just in your (or nerd) popular culture, can... What is even worse, you expect that from the people around you. If that is the case - you are an endangered animal in a world of TXT-abuse. You need to be entered in the red book of endangered species, towards the end, near the black pages.
Case B: you need a break. Long one to restore your sense of humour.

According to the good slashdot tradition I am not going to RTFA, but I will pitch in my 2c anyway. The observation is correct. If you look at eastern Europeans they use the ;-) much more than English or Americans, Brits tend to use the ROFL emoticon more and so on.

Cheers ;-)

I've been using them for 20 years...

[rbanzai]

... can't stop now!

I first saw an emoticon when I started using Quantum Link (AOL before it became AOL.) I was in a chat room and was confused because now and then someone would end their sentence with ":D"

Eventually I had to ask and someone wrote "look at it sideways."

Using a few basic emoticons has become as natural to me as regular punctuation marks, and just like regular punctuation when it is used responsibly it clarifies and enhances communication. //misses his C64 ///with the BIG ol' 300 baud Vicmodem ///:D

Russian smileys ))))

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally an appropriate thread to ask this in. Could someone please explain why Russian smileys have no eyes, and typically multiple chins?

I know this sounds stupid but I'm really curious. Thanks :)

Omitted dash in Puzzle Pirates emoticons

[Anonymous Coward]

After reading this thread all I can say is: Ouch! And here I thought that the use of :) on Puzzle Pirates had mostly to do with the fact that the graphic art of the game omits the characters' noses (and a big deal is made of that omission by Three Rings)!

Now I just feel old.

 

Re:The one I hate

[Daengbo]

I'm in Korea, not Japan, and they tend to use the Korean alphabet to indicate emoticons (e.g. _ for sad). I think it's fine, but the emoticon is obviously limited in scope because of the need to type in Korean. People writing to me in English still switch into their Korean input for emoticons.

In Thailand, they use "555" instead of "lol" (I know, not emoticons ... still related) because five in Thai is pronounced "Ha!" 555 = Ha ha ha!

Old school

[hkmarks]

When I was a kid, just a few years before the internet mainstreamed itself, a different breed of "emoticons" were common, but no one had thought of calling them that. Happy faces, hearts, XOXOXO, and this particular drawing of a cute floppy dog were everywhere. Rather than just writing "Good job!" on your homework, teachers would use a stamp or a sticker to say it.

Obviously there's no need to write using punctuation marks on a piece of paper, but the basic motive of expressing emotion in writing has been there for a long time.

We really just copy the ones we see most often. I personally use both styles regularly. Plus ASCII hearts on boards that allow it. I used to be a bit into anime fandom, so maybe that's where it came from, but it's just another bit of vocabulary now.

: ) :D XD X_X o_O; >_< *_* :P ; )

Re:The most enigmatic one

[jahudabudy]

Maybe Japanese actually spend time looking at the face, while Americans are looking somewhere else and catching a glimpse of the mouth by chance.

Or maybe Americans actually spend time looking at the face, while Japanese are looking somewhere else and catching a glimpse of the eyes by chance. Or maybe it is a cultural difference; Americans look for emotional clues in the mouth, Japanese look for cultural clues in the eyes. Maybe someone should run a study to determine which of these theories has some supporting evidence...

The article reasons that Japanese attempt to suppress their emotions, but that cannot be the case. Looking into a person's eyes is very intimate interaction while looking at their lips would be more akin to hiding emotion.

TFA is referring to the emotion of the person being looked at. yes, looking in the eyes is more intimate. That is why the Japanese look there for clues; the eyes are harder to keep impassive than the rest of the face. Americans, who are more expressive, can be read by looking at the mouth. Maybe they should have put a sentence in the article making this more explicit, maybe right after the sentence about Japanese people being less expressive...

This got a +5, Insightful? Maybe /. needs a '+1, mods didn't RTFA' mod. It would at least make some of the moderation around here more honest.

Re:The most enigmatic one

[kumanopuusan]

Sorry, but the parent isn't insightful, it's misinformation. What the article's author is saying is that the Japanese don't make big smiles. You've actually got it backwards.

Japanese people don't spend a lot of time looking into other people's eyes. It makes people very uncomfortable. I've even been recommended, on more than one occasion, to look at someone's chest rather than their face. During conversation, it's important to look away from the other person occasionally. The practice has the odd effect of making Japanese people in Western countries sometimes appear unattentive or uninterested. During meetings at work, I'm often the only one even looking in the direction of the person who's talking.

So, it isn't that Japanese people stare into each other's eyes all the time. His point is that Japanese people (especially the older generation) can be not very expressive about their emotions. Since they don't make big smiles or frowns, grimacing emoticons don't make sense. What little emotion is conveyed through the face is shown in a person's eyes. A greatly exaggerated version of this forms the Japanese smiley.

Re:No emoticons? 2nd order punctuation!

[redelm]

I also used to think emitocons were silly frippery, a distraction devoid of information.

After the N+1st flamewar on USENET, it slowly penetrated my conservative neanderthal brain that emoticons might actually have valid use: indicating tone-of-voice. Email/postings (incl /.) are very abbreviated, telegraphic, and intentions can easily be misread. Flamewars often result between participants who fundamentally agree. Homor usually falls flat without much greater context. An emoticon alerts the reader of the tone intended.

So I have come to see emoticons as a second order punctuation. Punctuation separates ideas; emoticons indicate tone. Personally, I very rarely use anything other than :) to indicate [non obvious] humor, irony and sarcasm. I'm not sure where I would use anything else without being totally redundant. For this is a common error -- most people who use emoticons use them excessively, to indicate tone when there could be no other. That is almost as annoying as people who under-utilise emoticons :) [I might have been serious here, but I'm mildly sarcastic]

Re:The mouth lies

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it is because smiling is a foreign cultural influence in Japan. Many late middle aged and elderly Japanese are literally physically unable to smile as they never learned it during childhood and have therfore never smiled before. They literally go to classes where instructors teach them how to smile.

Some cultures didn't smile like how some cultures never practiced kissing.

Re:The most enigmatic one

[Raideen]

Things must be changing then. My relatives look directly into my eyes when speaking to me. It's true about the "older" generations (like my grandparents in their 90s) but my parents (in their 60s) crack jokes, smile brightly, and are visually expressive. The only time that I'm aware of that looking down is appropriate is when you're being submissive, like when you're being reprimanded by your boss or parents. I'm not saying that you're wrong--just that our experiences are quite different. However, I share your experience about there being less emphasis on eye contact. Visual or audible indications (like nodding or "hmmm") that indicate that you're paying attention are still required though. Anyone with their eyes closed during a meeting (which isn't uncommon and can show intent listening) that isn't making any type of gesture could very well be sleeping. :-) (I'm American born and started BBSing in the 1990 so I use the horizontal type. BTW, I was referring to my relatives in Japan, not just my immediate family who has been in the U.S. for 30+ years.)