想讓工作能力被認可? 先刪掉郵件裏的表情符號!

Smileys generally seem like a good idea to express your approval or happiness. But when it comes to a business context, apparently, the humble emoji is a no-no.

笑臉符號通常是一種很好的表達你的贊同或快樂的方式。但在商務背景中，很明顯，這種詼諧的表情符號是一個禁忌。

In a new study, smileys and similar positive-looking emojis could decrease information sharing due to perceptions of low competence.

在一項新研究中，笑臉表情和類似的積極表情符號可能會使其他人認爲你的能力不高而減少與你的信息共享。

'Our findings provide first-time evidence that, contrary to actual smiles, smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence,' said the researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, University of Haifa and Amsterdam University.

來自海法大學、阿姆斯特丹大學以及本-古裏安大學的研究人員表示：“我們的發現首次證明了，與實際的微笑相反，笑臉符號不會增加人們對溫暖的感覺，反而會減少對能力的感知。”

Perceptions of low competence in turn undermined information sharing.

對低能力的認知反而會破壞信息的共享。

The researchers conducted three experiments on 549 participants from 29 countries.

研究人員對來自29個國家的549名參與者進行了三項實驗。

One experiment involved participants to read a work-related email from an unknown person, then evaluate the warmth and competency of that person.

在一個實驗中，參與者被要求閱讀一封由匿名者發送的、與工作相關的電子郵件，然後對該匿名者的能力和熱情程度進行評估。

Another experiment compared the use of a smiley to a smiling or neutral photograph.

另一個實驗則比較了在分別使用笑臉符號、微笑及中性照片後的效果。

Both experiments concluded that face-to-face smiles increase both competency and warmth, as well as a smiling sender was perceived as more competent and friendly than a neutral one.

兩項實驗都得出結論，面對面的微笑會增加對方對你能力的肯定，並能感受到你的熱情，相比中性照片，微笑更能體現你的能力和友好。

But smileys in an e-mail had no effect on the perception of warmth. In fact, it had a negative effect on the perception of competence. The smiley also did not influence the evaluation of the sender’s friendliness.

但在電子郵件中，笑臉符號並不能讓對方體會到你的溫暖。事實上，它對能力的感知有負面影響。笑臉符號也不會提升發件人的友好程度。

The third experiment involved the role of gender where the study showed that when the gender of an email writer was unknown and it included a smiley, recipients were more likely to assume that it was sent by a woman.

第三個實驗涉及性別角色，研究表明，如果一個電子郵件作者的性別未知，當郵件中包含笑臉符號時，更多的人認爲發件人是一名女性。

For now, at least, a smiley can only replace a smile when you already know the other person. In initial interactions, it is better to avoid using smileys, regardless of age or gender.

至少目前，只有當你已經認識對方的時候，笑臉表情才能代替微笑。在最初的交往中，最好是避免使用笑臉符號，不論年齡和性別。