Sarcasm and emoticons: comprehension and emotional impact

Filik, Ruth; Turcan, Alexandra; Thompson, Dominic; Harvey, Nicole; Davies, Harriet; Turner, Amelia

doi:10.1080/17470218.2015.1106566

Sarcasm and emoticons: comprehension and emotional impact

Filik, Ruth; Turcan, Alexandra; Thompson, Dominic; Harvey, Nicole; Davies, Harriet; Turner, Amelia

Authors

Dr RUTH FILIK ruth.filik@nottingham.ac.uk
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Alexandra Turcan

Dr DOMINIC THOMPSON DOMINIC.THOMPSON@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Nicole Harvey

Harriet Davies

Amelia Turner

Abstract

Most theorists agree that sarcasm serves some communicative function that would not be achieved by speaking directly, such as eliciting a particular emotional response in the recipient. One debate concerns whether this kind of language serves to enhance or mute the positive or negative nature of a message. The role of textual devices commonly used to accompany written sarcastic remarks is also unclear. The current research uses a rating task to investigate the influence of textual devices (emoticons and punctuation marks) on the comprehension of, and emotional responses to, sarcastic versus literal criticism and praise, for both unambiguous (Experiment 1) and ambiguous (Experiment 2) materials. Results showed that sarcastic criticism was rated as less negative than literal criticism, and sarcastic praise was rated as less positive than literal praise, suggesting that sarcasm serves to mute the positive or negative nature of the message. In terms of textual devices, results showed that emoticons had a larger influence on both comprehension and emotional impact than punctuation marks.

Citation

Filik, R., Turcan, A., Thompson, D., Harvey, N., Davies, H., & Turner, A. (2015). Sarcasm and emoticons: comprehension and emotional impact. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69(11), https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1106566

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Sep 29, 2015
Publication Date	Dec 11, 2015
Deposit Date	Mar 8, 2017
Publicly Available Date	Mar 8, 2017
Journal	Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Print ISSN	1747-0218
Electronic ISSN	1747-0226
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	69
Issue	11
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1106566
Keywords	Language comprehension; Emotion; Figurative language; Sarcasm; Emoticons
Public URL	https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/769456
Publisher URL	http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17470218.2015.1106566?needAccess=true
Contract Date	Mar 8, 2017