Signing off an email to a colleague with a chirpy smiley might be more contentious than you think.

你可能沒想到，在發給同事的郵件中使用調皮的笑臉表情會引發這么大的爭議。

Including smiley faces or similarly perky emojis may undermine information sharing and imply professional ineptitude, according to a new study by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

根據以色列內蓋夫本古里安大學的一項新研究，笑臉或者類似的逗趣表情可能會影響收件人分享工作信息的意愿，且給人留下不專業的印象。

"Our findings provide first-time evidence that, contrary to actual smiles, smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence," revealed Dr Ella Gilkson.

艾拉?吉爾科森博士表示：“我們的研究結果首次證明，與真正的微笑相反，笑臉表情不會給收件人更溫暖的感覺，還會令他們對發件人的能力評判打折扣。”

"In formal business e-mails, a smiley is not a smile," the post-doctorate fellow in management revealed.

這位管理學博士后表示：“在正式的商務郵件中，笑臉表情不等于微笑。”

Researchers from BGU, the University of Haifa and Amsterdam University conducted a series of experiments with 549 participants, hailing from 29 different countries, according to a paper published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

《社會心理學與人格科學》期刊刊登的論文顯示，本古里安大學、海法大學和阿姆斯特丹大學的研究人員對來自29個國家的549名參與者進行了一系列實驗。

Participants were each required to read similar work-related emails from a stranger and subsequently evaluate their warmth and professional competence. Some of these included smileys, others didn’t.

每名參與者都需要閱讀陌生人發來的相似的工作郵件，然后評估對方的熱情程度和專業能力。這些郵件有的包含笑臉表情，有的沒有。

Surprisingly, they found that the inclusion of smiley emojis had no impact on people’s perceptions of warmth and lowered their perceptions of competence.

令人驚訝的是，他們發現笑臉表情不會影響收件人感受到的熱情程度，不過會對發件人留給對方的專業印象有不利影響。

"The study also found that when the participants were asked to respond to e-mails on formal matters, their answers were more detailed and they included more content-related information when the e-mail did not include a smiley," explained Dr. Glikson.

吉爾克森解釋道：“研究還發現，參與者應要求回復公務郵件時，當電子郵件不包含笑臉符號時，他們會提供更詳細、更相關的信息。”

"We found that the perceptions of low competence if a smiley is included in turn undermined information sharing," she said.

“我們發現，如果電子郵件中含有笑臉符號，那么他們會感到對方不專業，這會破壞他們分享信息的意愿。”

The study even showed that there's a glimmer of sexism in emoji usage.

研究還表明，使用表情符號還有一絲性別歧視的意味。

It revealed that when the gender of the email sender was unknown, recipients were more likely to presume that an email which included a smiley icon was sent by a woman.

研究透露，當發件人的性別未知時，收件人更傾向于認為含有笑臉符號的電子郵件發送者是女性。

Signing off an email to a colleague with a chirpy smiley might be more contentious than you think.

你可能沒想到，在發給同事的郵件中使用調皮的笑臉表情會引發這么大的爭議。

Including smiley faces or similarly perky emojis may undermine information sharing and imply professional ineptitude, according to a new study by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

根據以色列內蓋夫本古里安大學的一項新研究，笑臉或者類似的逗趣表情可能會影響收件人分享工作信息的意愿，且給人留下不專業的印象。

"Our findings provide first-time evidence that, contrary to actual smiles, smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence," revealed Dr Ella Gilkson.

艾拉?吉爾科森博士表示：“我們的研究結果首次證明，與真正的微笑相反，笑臉表情不會給收件人更溫暖的感覺，還會令他們對發件人的能力評判打折扣。”

"In formal business e-mails, a smiley is not a smile," the post-doctorate fellow in management revealed.

這位管理學博士后表示：“在正式的商務郵件中，笑臉表情不等于微笑。”

Researchers from BGU, the University of Haifa and Amsterdam University conducted a series of experiments with 549 participants, hailing from 29 different countries, according to a paper published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

《社會心理學與人格科學》期刊刊登的論文顯示，本古里安大學、海法大學和阿姆斯特丹大學的研究人員對來自29個國家的549名參與者進行了一系列實驗。

Participants were each required to read similar work-related emails from a stranger and subsequently evaluate their warmth and professional competence. Some of these included smileys, others didn’t.

每名參與者都需要閱讀陌生人發來的相似的工作郵件，然后評估對方的熱情程度和專業能力。這些郵件有的包含笑臉表情，有的沒有。

Surprisingly, they found that the inclusion of smiley emojis had no impact on people’s perceptions of warmth and lowered their perceptions of competence.

令人驚訝的是，他們發現笑臉表情不會影響收件人感受到的熱情程度，不過會對發件人留給對方的專業印象有不利影響。

"The study also found that when the participants were asked to respond to e-mails on formal matters, their answers were more detailed and they included more content-related information when the e-mail did not include a smiley," explained Dr. Glikson.

吉爾克森解釋道：“研究還發現，參與者應要求回復公務郵件時，當電子郵件不包含笑臉符號時，他們會提供更詳細、更相關的信息。”

"We found that the perceptions of low competence if a smiley is included in turn undermined information sharing," she said.

“我們發現，如果電子郵件中含有笑臉符號，那么他們會感到對方不專業，這會破壞他們分享信息的意愿。”

The study even showed that there's a glimmer of sexism in emoji usage.

研究還表明，使用表情符號還有一絲性別歧視的意味。

It revealed that when the gender of the email sender was unknown, recipients were more likely to presume that an email which included a smiley icon was sent by a woman.

研究透露，當發件人的性別未知時，收件人更傾向于認為含有笑臉符號的電子郵件發送者是女性。