Relationships between the Emotional Transmissions in Mobile Phone Email Communication and the Email Contents in Japan
Abstract: This study examined the emotions senders of mobile phone email wanted to convey and the email contents relevant to emotional transmissions composed by the senders. In particular, we focused on the influence of the degrees of intimacy between senders and receivers. Two sets of subjects—those who were intimate and those who were not intimate with the sender—received mobile phone email messages intended to invoke “joy” and “sadness.” The relationships between the emotions experienced by the receivers, the emotions which the senders wanted to convey, and the contents of the email responses in each situation were analyzed. Content analysis revealed that the contents of emotional transmission were included more in joyful than sad situations. In particular, the tendency for emotional expressions to be included with an intimate partner was seen. For the non-intimate partner, the tendency for greetings to be included was seen.