Emotive Communication in Computer-Mediated Interaction
Summary
Emotive communication in computer-mediated interaction encompasses the ways in which individuals convey, interpret and respond to emotional content in text-based digital environments. Absent the facial expressions, tone of voice and body language of face-to-face exchange, users have developed a rich repertoire of symbolic tools—such as emoticons and emoji—to signal affective states, soften directives, reinforce social bonds and manage impressions. Research in this field spans social psychology, linguistics, cognitive neuroscience and human–computer interaction, exploring how paralinguistic cues are adapted for asynchronous channels, how they shape perceptions of credibility and trust, and how automated systems can recognise and generate emotional signals. Practical applications range from enhancing user engagement in online education and customer service to improving mental-health support via chatbots and refining sentiment-analysis algorithms for large-scale social-media monitoring. Across cultures and languages, emotive digital cues contribute to social presence, foster empathy in distributed teams and enable nuanced interpersonal dynamics in both personal and professional contexts.
Research from Nature Portfolio
No recent Nature Portfolio content available.
Emotive Communication in Computer-Mediated Interaction publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in emotive communication in computer-mediated interaction across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Emoji: A small digital image or icon used to express an idea, emotion or concept in text-based communication.
Emoticon: A sequence of keyboard characters that represents a facial expression to convey emotion in written form.
Paralinguistic cues: Nonverbal signals, such as tone, rhythm or symbols, that accompany verbal communication to convey attitude or emotion.
Social presence: The perceived salience of another person in mediated communication, contributing to the sense of a real interpersonal interaction.
Asynchronous communication: Exchanges in which messages are not transmitted and received in real time, allowing delays between senders and recipients.
References
- #let’s-discuss: Analyzing Students’ Use of Emoji when Interacting with Course Readings. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (2024).
- Do emojis really help us to communicate better? Investigating instructor credibility, students’ learning motivation, and performance. Education and Information Technologies (2024).
- Emoji can facilitate recognition of conveyed indirect meaning. PLOS ONE (2020).
About these summaries
This Nature Research Intelligence Topic summary is created with the cited references and a large language model. We take care to ground generated text with facts, and have systems in place to gain human feedback on the overall quality of the process in line with our AI principles. We strive to create accurate and useful summaries for people unfamiliar with the research topic and that supports this goal. These pages are a beta release and will be updated as we learn how best to help people gain value from a research topic summary.
Turn complex research questions into confident strategic decisions
When you're under pressure to set direction, justify investment, or understand your competitive position, you need more than raw data — you need trusted insights you can act on.
Benchmark your performance against global peers using robust, methodologically sound analysis.
Combine quantitative metrics with qualitative expert insight to uncover strengths, gaps and emerging opportunities.
Gain tailored, decision-ready recommendations aligned to your strategic priorities.
Talk to us to learn more about our data dashboards and bespoke strategy reports.
Grow research skills, confidence and careers with training built for every stage of the research lifecycle.
Developed with Nature Portfolio journal Editors and internationally renowned experts. Discover three ways to learn:
Self-paced, online courses in convenient bite-sized units, covering key skills across scientific writing, publishing, grant writing, data analysis, and more.
Expert trainer-led workshops with hands-on exercises and real-time feedback across core research skills, delivered via interactive group sessions.
Editor-led workshops combining core principles in writing and publishing, personalised 1:1 feedback from Nature Portfolio Editors and hands-on exercises.
Explore course catalogues and workshop agendas, enquire about the options or request institutional pricing.