Link between ethnicity and colour of emojis

A new research has found that most people assume messages with yellow emojis have been written by white authors.

Responses of 500 participants were analysed by a team of Edinburgh University - with half self-identifying as black and half as white - to text messages.

Researchers said darker and lighter-toned emojis were seen as clear indicators of a sender's ethnicity.

A darker-toned emoji caused both black and white readers to select a black author 80 per cent of the time while including a lighter-toned emoji resulted in 80 per cent of readers choosing a white author.

The findings also show that even supposedly neutral options can carry social meaning, which may advantage some groups over others. Moreover, the research team looks to highlight these findings to help improve development of technologies.

Previous studies have shown that people use skin-toned emojis as a way of representing their own identity.