A smiley face or a funny picture can lower your credibility in the eyes of colleagues and superiors and harm your career.
“We are all used to communicating with emoji these days, social media has taught us that it is easy and fun. However, in some situations, especially when it comes to work and business, such a habit can cost you dearly. It signals your frivolity.
Therefore, if you want to be perceived as a promising, authoritative employee, think twice before sending a picture or emoji to colleagues or a boss.” in their article in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, scientists from Tel Aviv University (Israel).
The researchers conducted a series of experiments during which various scenarios from everyday life were played out.
For example, in one experiment, participants were asked to imagine that while shopping in a supermarket, they see another customer wearing a T-shirt with a famous logo. At the same time, half of the participants were shown a T-shirt on which the logo was written in words, and the rest — a T-shirt with a picture logo. As a result, those who saw a T-shirt with a verbal logo rated its wearer as a more serious and authoritative person than those who were shown a T-shirt with a graphic symbol.
Another experiment showed similar results. Participants were asked to imagine that they were attending a work meeting at a fictitious company called Lotus. Half of the participants were told that the employee who greeted them was wearing a T-shirt with the name of the company written on the chest, while the rest were told that her T-shirt had a lotus flower on it. And, as in the first case, it seemed to the participants that an employee with a verbal logo on her clothes is more respected and high-ranking than the one who put on a T-shirt with a picture.
In the third experiment, each participant was asked to choose, from a given profile, a person who should represent them in a competitive game intended for people from high society. At the same time, the choice had to be made between two people, one of whom introduced himself in the profile using emoji, and the second described himself in words. 62% of participants preferred a person with a verbal profile.
Employees who demonstrate their competence through words are more likely to be selected for leadership positions
They lose those who signal their weakness with the help of emoji, the researchers conclude.
The thing is, research shows that visual messages are often interpreted as a signal of the desire of their author to become closer to the person to whom these messages are addressed. Moreover, such closeness is usually needed by those people who are on a lower rung of the social ladder than those to whom they would like to be closer. “By using emojis to communicate your desire to be in a closer relationship with the addressee, you thereby inform him that you are not as authoritative as he is,” Elinor Amit, co-author of the study.