Emojis are not a universal language: gender, age and culture influence their interpretation. British participants were more accurate in associating the faces with the corresponding emotion than the Chinese.

Chinese respondents tend to represent these emotions with completely different emojis: for example, they use a happy face with negative connotations such as sarcasm. There were no differences between women and men in the recognition of faces representing surprise and disgust. The authors indicate in the study that the use of these symbols may be behind this result.