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Lately read an article about emojis and how inferior they are supposed to be in comparison to facial expression and tone of voice. (The article is in German, probably paywalled, and not really relevant to this question.)

The article made me wonder whether this is true for everybody. As far as I know, especially autists have trouble parsing faces and recognizing emotions.

Generally speaking, is it easier for autists to understand the feelings behind texts with smileys than the feelings behind speech with facial and tonal expression? For example, does an autist recognize a text with wink smiley better as irony than an ironic comment spoken with accompanied voice and facial expression?

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  • Can you link back to the article? Was this an article based on research (in that case, a link to the actual study is best!), or was it just someone's opinion?
    – Tinkeringbell ♦
    Commented May 2, 2022 at 6:32
  • The article is nothing special: zeit.de/zeit-magazin/2022/18/emojis-smileys-mails-arbeitsalltag. (Fear it's paywalled, though.) A journalist's point of view, published in the cultural magazine of the renowned German newspaper ZEIT. I'm adding a "supposed to be inferior" to the text, to make clear that it's opinionated.
    – Florian
    Commented May 2, 2022 at 6:56
  • "A journalist's point of view" : any information/search about him being autist?
    – OldPadawan
    Commented May 2, 2022 at 11:42
  • The journalist? I don't think so. The article is not about autism, either. The article is only an opinion piece that the author thinks emojis are overused and often used as an inadequate replacement where people should use voice or face-to-face communication instead. It only made me wonder whether this "inadequate" is true for everyone, and esp. whether autists might possibly benefit more from emojis than voice/face-to-face.
    – Florian
    Commented May 3, 2022 at 7:21
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    The title doesn't match the body! I found an article which seems to indicate that there's been research into using emojis to facilitate video communication for people with autism. Would that work as an answer?
    – Laurel
    Commented Jun 18, 2022 at 2:08

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As a person with autism, I can say that when they are used appropriately and to help communicate an emotion or intention, especially for communication done through text-based communication, they can be extremely helpful to convey a non-verbal reassurance in the intended emotional delivery.

But I will say that this is not a universal rule, which is made more clear by the fact that people often use emojis or emoticons for things they lack confidence in or are unwilling to say with their words. In scenarios like these, the emojis become almost overwhelming and confusing because if you aren't saying with your words what the emoji is trying to convey, then you ultimately are forcing the other person to guess, and that is likely something they have tried to avoid if they are aware of their trouble identifying social cues.

Source: I grew up with undiagnosed autism until age 22.

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