Oleszkiewicz, Anna, Karwowski, Maciej, Pisanski, Katarzyna, Sorokowski, Piotr, Sobrado, Boaz and Sorokowska, Agnieszka (2017) Who uses emoticons? Data from 86 702 Facebook users. Personality and Individual Differences, 119. pp. 289-295. ISSN 0191-8869

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Abstract

Emoticons are graphical representations of emotions used in virtual communication. We explored patterns of
emoticon use in a sample of 86 702 Facebook users (aged 16 to 60, 59% women).We analyzed the total number
and type of emoticons posted to public Facebook feeds as a function of a user's gender, age and Big Five personality
characteristics. In our sample, 90% of Facebook users employed emoticons. The most popular 15 emoticons
represented 99.6% of all emoticons posted. Our results further showed that the frequency of emoticon usagewas
predicted mainly by age and gender, explaining 16% of the variance, whereas user's personality scores explained
b2%. These findings suggest that emoticon usage may assist in profiling user's demographic, but not necessarily
psychological traits.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Psychology > Psychology
Depositing User:	Kasia Pisanski
Date Deposited:	02 Nov 2017 11:33
Last Modified:	16 Aug 2019 01:00
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/70862

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