A Cross-Cultural Survey of Emoticon Research Before 2015

Abstract

Emoticons have emerged as a strong means of enhancing text-based communication, and cross-cultural understanding is important in framing emoticon research. This paper provides a cross-cultural comparison of emoticons by reviewing publications and webpages in English, Chinese, and Japanese. To our knowledge, it is the most comprehensive survey of its type, covering well over 100 papers, including some which have never been translated into English. Note that since this paper was written in 2015, our survey focuses on research published before 2015. We also provide a detailed history of the origins of emoticon use. Our hope is to provide a useful resource for researchers to understand early efforts in the field, and foster continued research in emoticons as used in computer-mediated communication (CMC).