Using smiley face emojis and other emoticons in work-related emails could be hurting your career prospects, new research has found.
Far from creating a positive impression on the recipient, virtual smileys in fact make the sender look like an idiot, according to scientists from Ben-Gurion University.
"Our findings provide first-time evidence that, contrary to actual smiles, smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence," BGU post-doctorate fellow Dr Ella Glikson said in a statement.
"In formal business emails, a smiley is not a smile."
The study, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, was based on a series of experiments using 549 participants from 29 countries.