When misused, emojis can be confusing or even offensive…but a recent study found that sometimes, emojis can help break bad news!

Researchers from Chatham University found that using emojis or GIFs in work emails can soften the blow. 105 participants were shown messages with no emoji, a negative emoji, or a positive emoji. Even if the news was bad, the emoji use was linked to higher team morale.

“This appropriate emotion expression helps bring virtual teams together, capturing nuances of conversation that are otherwise impossible or inappropriate to convey with text,” study author Dr. Monica Riodan said.

This information could be helpful for those who work from home. (dailymail.co.uk)