Emojis are worth a thousand words. But what do they say about your sex life?
Two recent studies suggest that frequent use of emojis with a potential partner is linked to more active and successful romance.
While previous generations of daters had the “benefit” of meeting prospective sweethearts in person, today’s Netflix-and-chillers tend develop and build relationships digitally.
“This forces many [people] to … create the building blocks of intimacy in shorter, more frequent, and more emotionally limited correspondences than we would typically expect in a face-to-face scenario,” according to the findings, published last week in the journal PLoS ONE.
“In this emotionally and sensorily austere context,” the paper continued, “what tools can daters use to represent themselves and potentially improve their connections?”
Emoji. Duh.
A pair of studies—conducted by researchers from the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University and Lake Forest College in Illinois—examined attitudes toward emoji use in interpersonal situations.
The first focused on whether the use of keyboard symbols is associated with “success” in intimate connections.
Based on the responses of more than 5,300 single American adults (aged 18 to 94), nearly 30 percent of people use emoticons regularly with dates—mostly because they provide a better outlet for self-expression (and because they are faster than writing a full message).
And it seems to pay off: Participants who used emojis more frequently went on more first dates, and engaged in sexual activity more often over the previous year.
The second study—a replica and extension of the first—investigated whether the frequency of singles’ emoji use relates to success in intimate connections. (And, more importantly, whether it leads to second dates and further meetups.)
This time, the pool consisted of only 275 people, 18 to 71 years old, who were single or casually dating during the autumn of 2018. A majority of folks reported frequent emoji use with potential partners, claiming it helped maintain connections with first dates, and led to more sexual behavior.
“Emojis appear to be an important aspect of social behavior in today’s digital world,” the final paper said, and “can be used strategically as affective signals, particularly in the domain of human courtship.”
Moral of the story: All the single ladies, now put your eggplant emojis up!
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