Table 5_Social anxiety and emoji use: gender differences and the role of loneliness in digital communication among college students.docx

Emojis are one of the fastest growing forms of digital communication. However, sending texts can provoke distress. This may be particularly true for the 40% of emerging adults with clinically significant symptoms of social anxiety who often suffer from loneliness and altered communication styles. We hypothesize that to mitigate distress, higher levels of social anxiety and loneliness may be associated with greater emoji use when sending texts that could be interpreted negatively. We also hypothesize the relation would be especially pronounced in females given higher rates of social anxiety and emoji use in general. College students (N = 191, 64% female, 18–24 years of age) read a series of vignettes with ambiguous texts and were asked to imagine sending them to a friend. They were instructed to convey positive meaning for half of the texts and negative meaning for the other half. Participants replied with a pre-written response and were given the option to send the response as is or add an emoji expressing a facial expression ranging from happy to displeased. Social anxiety and loneliness were assessed using established self-report scales. Multiple linear regression [R2 = 0.072, F(3,107) = 3.859, p = 0.012] demonstrated that women with high levels of both social anxiety and loneliness used emojis more frequently, and that this varied depending on valence. Specifically, women with high social anxiety used emojis more frequently when conveying positively valanced messages (β = 0.338, p = 0.003). No relations emerged between social anxiety, loneliness and emoji use in men [R2 = 0.044, F(3,52) = 1.844, p = 0.151]. Although the effect sizes are small, these findings may inform the design of future studies on mental health and digital communication, increase understanding about gender differences in online communication style, and provide preliminary insights for the development of digital interventions that identify young adults who may most benefit from clinical engagement.

表情符号（emojis）是增长速度最快的数字通信形式之一。然而，发送文本信息可能引发情绪困扰，这一现象在40%存在临床显著性社交焦虑症状的成年早期群体中尤为突出——这类人群常受孤独感困扰，且沟通模式出现异常。本研究提出两项核心假设：其一，为缓解情绪困扰，社交焦虑与孤独感水平更高的个体，在发送可能被解读为负面的文本信息时，会更频繁地使用表情符号；其二，鉴于女性群体整体的社交焦虑发生率与表情符号使用率均更高，上述关联在女性群体中会更为显著。本研究招募191名大学生作为被试（N = 191，女性占比64%，年龄范围18~24岁），要求其阅读一系列情境小故事（vignettes），并想象将文本内容发送给好友。研究者要求被试为半数文本传递积极含义，为另一半传递消极含义。参与者需使用预设回复文本作答，并可选择直接发送该文本，或添加涵盖愉悦至不悦等不同面部表情类别的表情符号。社交焦虑与孤独感通过经学界验证的自报告量表进行评估。多元线性回归分析结果显示[R² = 0.072，F(3,107) = 3.859，p = 0.012]，同时存在高社交焦虑与高孤独感的女性群体，表情符号使用频率更高，且该关联会因信息效价不同而存在差异。具体而言，社交焦虑水平较高的女性，在传递积极效价的信息时，会更频繁地使用表情符号（β = 0.338，p = 0.003）。而在男性群体中，未发现社交焦虑、孤独感与表情符号使用频率之间存在显著关联[R² = 0.044，F(3,52) = 1.844，p = 0.151]。尽管效应量较小，但本研究结果可为未来心理健康与数字通信相关研究提供设计思路，增进学界对在线沟通风格性别差异的理解，并为开发数字干预手段提供初步依据，以识别出最能从临床干预中获益的年轻群体。