Emoji Identification and Emoji Effects on Sentence Emotionality in ASD-Diagnosed Adults and Neurotypical Controls.
Christopher J Hand, Ashley Kennedy, Ruth Filik and 2 others
PMID 35415776WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic adults misidentified sad, fearful, and surprised emoji more often than non-autistic adults.
When reading neutral text, autistic adults rated sentences with sad emoji as significantly more negative than non-autistic adults did. Happy emoji influenced both groups equally.
Key findings
01Non-autistic participants were significantly more accurate than autistic participants at identifying sad, fearful, and surprised emoji, but both groups identified happy, disgusted, and angry emoji with equal consistency.
02When rating the emotional tone of neutral sentences, autistic participants rated those paired with sad emoji as more negative (-0.95) than non-autistic participants did (-0.71), while happy emoji had no differential effect between groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Diagnoses were self-reported and not verified by the researchers. The sample was heavily skewed toward female participants, unlike typical ASD research which is male-dominated. The study used a small, fixed set of 12 emoji and 36 sentences, which may not reflect the variety used in real-world communication. Participants were not matched on IQ or age, which could influence processing speed or comprehension.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was conducted in accordance with British Psychological Society guidelines.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that all autistic adults struggle with all emoji. The study found no difference in identifying happy, angry, or disgusted emoji. The differences were specific to sad, fearful, and surprised expressions, and to the intensity of negative sentiment perceived in text.