A study showing that emojis convey more emotion than mugshots. On simplicity and complexity.

【Humans are more likely to read emotions from “pictograms” than from actual facial expressions.】
https://gigazine.net/news/20230711-emojis-better-real-facial-expressions/

・Emojis convey emotions more accurately and quickly than actual facial expressions, Italian study finds

・For the experiment, the research team prepared 48 mugshots and 48 emojis representing six basic emotions: joy, sadness, surprise, fear, anger, and disgust. After showing 51 men and women between the ages of 18 and 35 the words for the emotions, they were shown either the emojis or the mugshots, and asked to answer whether the emotions they could read matched the words or not.

・The results of this experiment showed that when presented with a pictogram, the response was on average 73 milliseconds faster than with a picture of a face. Accuracy was also higher with pictograms, 92.7%, compared to only 82.43% with face photos

・The experiment also showed that the face of joy was the quickest to recognize, while surprise and anger were the second and third easiest expressions to recognize, respectively. On the other hand, fearful expressions were the slowest to recognize. This trend was the same for both emojis and mugshots

These are the quotes from the article

Simple, like emojis, is good, but also complex.

It seems that emojis were more accurate and faster at reading emotions than facial pictures.

Well, I’m sure you’re right.

Compared to mugshots, emojis have simpler information and are easier to understand.

However, what I think is that emojis only “express” that “I am in the mood or feeling of 00,

Even if you send a smiley face emoji, there is a possibility that it is not really a smile.

On the other hand,

Facial photos (real facial expressions) are not as easy to read as emoticons, but I think you can read the other side of a smile better than with emojis.

I’ll try to summarize a bit.

<Emoji>.

Two-dimensional information, information is simple, may only be a statement, and the depth of facial expression is difficult to read.

<Pictures of faces (real expressions)

Three-dimensional information, information is complex, may just be a statement, but the depths of facial expressions are relatively easy to read.

I guess it would be like this.

Emojis = two-dimensional information = Internet information

Face photo = three dimensional information = real information

We might put it this way.

Recently, news of the death of a celebrity made the news.

Various speculations, opinions, and accusations were flying around on Twitter and other online platforms.

But how much did those who go around expressing all sorts of opinions understand about the deceased? I suspect that most of them only know about the deceased through two-dimensional information on a screen. I don’t think such people are qualified to say many things about the deceased.

It is indescribable to imagine that after one’s death, one’s two-dimensional information will be dug up and people will say whatever they want to say about one’s self. (What percentage of yourself can be known just from two-dimensional information?)

Then, if you meet someone in real life, you can say that you can mutually understand each other if you have three-dimensional information, which is not true, but it is better than only two-dimensional information.

I digress a bit.

Simple information, such as emojis, is indeed an easy way to convey what is expressed, but it is not the whole story.

It can also be said that simplicity = less information = less to convey.

Simple is good, but it is also important to meet people in real life and get complex three-dimensional information.

The story of the emojis made me think of that.

I am an indoor composer who, despite the digital convenience of our world, would like to meet people actively and in real life, once again.

See you then.

Advantages and disadvantages of simplicity. Advantages and disadvantages of complexity. But the deeper we go into the world and human beings themselves, the more complex we find them. Thinking simply” or simplicity itself is a good thing, but perhaps it is better to think of simplicity as a gateway to the essence of complexity.