雙語閱讀：怎樣科學地使用聊天表情

摘要：研究者們已經開始試圖找到更好在不同文體中使用表情的方法(emojis也許火過一陣子，但並沒有其他傳統校園表情前三那般流行：笑臉，皺眉和眨眼。)他們的研究告訴我們如何在網上約會抑或回覆專業郵件時充分利用表情符號。

The battle is over and the emoticons have won. Whatever you think of the symbols, they’re absolutely everywhere, including in work emails. But the etiquette over emoticon usage is still fuzzy, and it’s an understandable source of tension, especially considering that people may be judging us based on our smiley deployment.

Luckily, researchers are starting to better understand how people perceive emoticons in various contexts (emojis may be having a moment, but they’re not as universal as the top three old-school emoticons: the smiley, the frowny, and the winky). Their work can provide some helpful pointers on how to use your emoticons to maximum effect, whether dating online or responding to a professional email.

鬥爭結束情感獲勝。無論你怎麼看待表情符號，它們真真無處不在，哪怕是工作的郵件。但如何使用這些表達感情的符號並沒有明確的規則，也可看成是我們緊張情緒的舒緩，尤其是意識到別人可能會根據我們發出的表情符號對我們自身做出判斷。

好在，研究者們已經開始試圖找到更好在不同文體中使用表情的方法(emojis也許火過一陣子，但並沒有其他傳統校園表情前三那般流行：笑臉，皺眉和眨眼。)他們的研究告訴我們如何在網上約會抑或回覆專業郵件時充分利用表情符號。

Here are five ways to be a smarter emoticon user:

怎樣科學地使用聊天表情

下面五招教你做一個聰明的表情使用者：

1. If you want to be popular, limit how many frownies you use.

　　1.如果想增粉，就減少皺眉的表情吧。

Researchers from the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and Yahoo Labs analyzed more than 31 million tweets to determine the characteristics of the most popular and influential Twitter users. They found that Twitter users with a lot of social capital sprinkled smileys liberally throughout their missives, while frownies were linked to low popularity. Popular users still expressed negative opinions — they just did so with words.

劍橋計算機研究室的調查者以及雅虎實驗室分析3100多萬推特旨在發現最受歡迎影響力最大推特用戶的特徵。他們發現這些推特紅人們會在發送的信息中添加大量的微笑表情，而皺眉則是減粉的原因。推特紅人們也會表達負面情緒-僅限於文字表達。

2. Be aware of gender stereotypes.

　　2.意識到性別模式。

Multiple studies over the past 15 years have shown that women use emoticons more than men. Women also smile more in real life, perhaps because they are expected to be the more expressive gender, says Susan Herring, a linguist at Indiana University who studies online communication. In a 2009 analysis of messages featured on a texting-based Italian dating show, she and her colleagues argued that men and women used their texts to project different identities. The women who sent in their messages seemed to be “performing a kind of socially desirable femininity” characterized by “playfulness” and “fun,” while the men acted more serious.

超過15年的多項研究發現女人比男人更愛使用表情符號。研究網上交流印度大學的語言學家Susan Herring認爲現實中女人也更愛笑，也許她們本身就被看成是更樂於表達，在09年對意大利文字約會的信息分析中，她和同事們認爲男人女人用文字塑造出了不同的個性特徵。女人們發送出的信息似乎”是要成爲有魅力的社交尤物“，比如”好玩“”有意思“，而男人就會更加認真嚴肅一點。

“There’s this new norm that women are expected to show more happiness and excitement than men do,” said Herring. “If you’re a woman, you may have to realize that if you don’t use a smiley face sometimes, you may be misinterpreted as being in a bad mood or unhappy with the person you’re talking to. I don’t think that’s true for men.”

”新的標準也指出似乎女人應該比男人表現的更快樂和興奮，“Herring說”如果你是女人，你也許會意識到如果有時候沒有用笑臉的表情，就會被對方誤認爲是心情不好不開心。但這一點在男生身上卻不適用。“

3. If you want someone to like you, match their emoticon frequency.

　　3.如果你想別人喜歡你，時常配合他們的情緒。

In a 2013 study of messages in chat rooms full of men and women of various ages, Chris Fullwood, a cyberpsychology researcher at the University of Wolverhampton, and his colleagues found that although men typically use fewer emoticons in general, when conversing with women they become more expressive and up their usage.

2013年充滿各個年齡段的男女聊天室聊天信息的研究中，武爾夫普爾頓大學網癮研究員Chris Fullwood以及他的同事發現，儘管男生普遍使用更少的表情，一旦和女人聊天，他們會更熱衷於表達，增加使用次數。

“That could be a direct attempt to minimize social differences,” Fullwood said. “Our communication styles become more similar if we want to show we are similar to another person and get them to like us.” So if you’re trying to flirt with someone who isn’t matching your emoticon frequency, that may be a sign they’re not into it. And more generally, it’s best not to overdo it with the emoticons, since if you do you may be perceived as superficial or silly. “If you use one after every utterance you’re not going to be taken seriously,” said Herring.

Fullwood說”也有直接的途徑來減少社交差異”，“當我們想表現出跟對方的相似性以取悅，我們的交流模式也會變得相似。”所以如果你調情的那個人似乎跟你使用表情的頻率不一致，那麼也許說明他們不想配合你而已。一般來說，也不要過度使用表情，以免被認爲膚淺或傻。“如果你每句話之後都加一個表情，那麼別人就會覺得你不太正經。”

4. Wait until you know someone.

　　4.瞭解之後再說。

We don’t send emoticons to strangers with the same frequency that we send them to our friends, according to a 2008 study by Daantje Derks, an organizational psychologist at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. If you receive an emoticon from someone you don't know very well, it may be interpreted as creepy. Like in face-to-face interactions, there’s a social norm against emoting around people you don’t know very well, Herring said. Going too heavy, too early on the emoticons is a bit like “laughing too loud,” she says.

根據08年鹿特丹伊斯拉姆斯大學組織心理學家Daantje Derks的研究表明，我們對陌生人使用表情的頻率肯定不及對朋友。如果一個不熟悉的人給你發來表情，也許會被認爲有點詭異呢。就好比面對面的交流，社交準則說不要對不熟悉的人有太多面部表情。Herring說，過早過度使用表情就好比“大聲笑“。

5. Avoid looking like an emoticon tourist.

　　5.別看起來完全不懂使用表情符號。

Language and culture have been shown to color how emoticons are used and interpreted, as was recently demonstrated in a 2013 study of tweets from around the world. In Japan and South Korea, for instance, emoticons are more likely to be horizontally oriented (think @_@) ), as opposed to the standard American :), which is vertically oriented unless your mail program or phone turns it into a graphic for you.

在對2013年全球推特的研究中發現語言和文化會影響表情的使用和含義。比如日本韓國，表情更加傾向於橫向(思考@_@)，然而標準的美式表情：)，是縱向的。除非你的郵件系統或電話自動爲你修改。

In the Philippines and Indonesia, however, where English is spoken along with local languages, emoticons are just as likely to be vertically oriented. And in languages read from right to left, such as Arabic and Hebrew, smileys are reversed, like (: . South Americans apparently “are known to explore various types of eyebrows in their emoticons,” according to the study authors. So if you’re sending emoticons to foreign friends, a bit of research can help bridge the communication gap.

然而在菲律賓和印度尼西亞，英語和當地語言混雜使用，表情符號也似乎偏縱向。而對於從右往左閱讀的語言，比如阿拉伯語和希伯來語，笑臉也會反過來(：。研究發現南美顯然”被認爲在表達情緒中更熱衷於使用眉毛 “。所以如果你給國外的朋友發送表情，一點小調查能幫助你縮短交流代溝哦。