Individual differences in emoji use across age, gender, and personality: Based on a Survey of Simeji Users in 10s and 20s

Abstract

While emojis have infiltrated daily digital communication, there is a lack of understanding of emoji usage behaviours and their individual differences, leading to miscommunication among users with different usage tendencies. In light of this, the present study explored individual differences in the frequency and categories of emoji use across age, gender, and personality among individuals aged 10-29. The current research conducted an online questionnaire on Simeji and analyzed responses from 1289 participants, with answered emojis categorized through Unicode. Research results are listed as follows. (1) individuals in their 20s used emojis more frequently than 10s and tended to use ‘face-hand’ and ‘event’ categories. (2) women used emojis more frequently than men and preferred using the ‘emotion’ category. (3) Extraversion, openness, and neuroticism scores were positively correlated with emoji frequency. The scores of neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness were also related to the categories of frequently used emojis. The current findings suggest the diversity of emoji use among young generations and the relationship between usage behaviors and personal characteristics.