This detail in your text messages would make you a smarter person than average, study finds

From handwritten letters to text messages, correspondence has always been an essential tool for communication. Long criticized for having impoverished the richness of hand-written missives, replacing our long lyrical flights with short and more direct sentences, SMS has given rise to a new form of exchanges, punctuated in particular by the appearance of emojis: these small icons representing a character in action. Researchers at Indiana University have made a link between these digital images and our emotional intelligence, reports Newsweek . In their study, they explain that adding this textual ornament to our dialogues would be a greater ability to show empathy.

“Secure” attachment type

“How we interact during virtual communications can reveal something more about ourselves,” article author and Indiana University psychologist Simon Dubé said in a statement. It's not just a smiley face or a heart emoji: it's a way to convey a message and communicate more effectively, and how you use it tells us a lot about you. The study is based on a sample of 320 adults, approximately thirty-something Americans, mainly white heterosexuals, active in society, sending and receiving text messages regularly.

Naturally, this is about intimate and non-professional communication, with customary using more polite expressions and not “smileys”. While psychologists also distinguish different types of attachment – “secure”, avoidant, anxious and chaotic – researchers assure that people adding more emoticons to their private messages would often be in more “secure” relationships, i.e. attachment relatively stable and adapted emotionally and behaviorally, characterized by a childhood spent in a rather healthy and balanced environment. Conversely, children whose parents are emotionally distant or dismissive tend to develop avoidant or anxious attachment styles, making their relationships more complex.

A question of gender?

Although the different types of attachment cannot truly be gendered, the study would show that, overall, women would be more likely to add emojis to their conversations. An important and very revealing feature of relationships between men and women: it would be more about conversations with friends and family. Conversely, they would use fewer smileys in discussions with sexual and romantic partners, reflecting more avoidant behavior.

This study focuses on a limited sample of people, however, clarified the team behind the survey, and does not “fully reflect the majority of the population.” In any case, this study could well change some behaviors.