Cultural Differences in Emoticon Perception: Japanese See the Eyes and Dutch the Mouth of Emoticons

Hisako Yamamoto; Misako Kawahara; Mariska Kret; Akihiro Tanaka

doi:10.5178/lebs.2020.80

Hisako W. Yamamoto Tokyo Womans' Christian University, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Misako Kawahara Tokyo Woman’s Christian University, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Mariska E. Kret Leiden University
Akihiro Tanaka Tokyo Woman’s Christian University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5178/lebs.2020.80

Abstract

This study investigated cultural differences in the perception of emoticons between Japanese and Dutch participants. We manipulated the eyes and mouth of emoticons independently and asked participants to evaluate the emotion of each emoticon. The results show that Japanese participants tended to focus on the emotion expressed with the eyes while Dutch participants put weight on the shape of the mouth when evaluating emoticons. This tendency is consistent with a previous cross-cultural study comparing people from Japan and the United States (Yuki et al., 2007).