Emotional Expression Online: the Impact of Task, Relationship and Personality Perception on Emoticon Usage in Instant Messenger

Abstract

Emoticons have been widely used in Computer mediated communication (CMC) such as Instant Messenger (IM). This study investigates the effect of communication task, interpersonal perception, and relationship intimacy on the use of emoticons in IM. The results show that task formality and two aspects of interpersonal perception affect the emoticon usage. Detailed discussions and implications are addressed.