Title Page
Contents
Abstract 7
I. Introduction 9
II. Theoretical backgrounds 13
1. Emoticons 13
A. Emoticons and computer mediated communication 13
B. The effect of emoticons 15
C. Emoticons in workplace 16
D. Neural correlates of emoticons 17
2. Trust and Distrust 19
A. Antecedents of Trust 20
B. Emotions and Trust 21
C. Trust and Distrust 23
D. Neural correlates of trust and distrust 24
III. Research methodology and results 24
1. Experiment 1 26
A. Participants 26
B. Experiment procedure 27
C. Behavioral analysis 27
D. Results 30
E. Discussion 31
2. Experiment 2 33
A. Participants 33
B. Experiment procedure 34
C. fMRI Data analysis 35
D. Results 43
E. Discussion 48
IV. Conclusion 50
References 53
Table 1. Measurement items for Trust and Distrust 26
Table 2. Results of One-way ANOVA showing significant difference in Low Trust and High Distrust condition 29
Table 3. Results of ANCOVA 29
Table 4. Technical details 35
Table 5. fMRI activation patterns in each contrast on Trust decision 39
Table 6. fMRI activation patterns in each contrast on Distrust decision 43
Table 7. The results of behavioral experiment and of related fMRI experiment 47
Figure 1. Smile and anxiety emoticon 25
Figure 2. Graphical illustration of the experimental task for both experiments 27
Figure 3. High Trust condition. 36
Figure 4. Smile emoticon vs. anxiety emoticon contrast. 37
Figure 5. Low Trust condition. 37
Figure 6. Low Trust condition. Smile emoticon vs. anxiety emoticon contrast 38
Figure 7. High Distrust condition. 40
Figure 8. Low Distrust condition. Smile emoticon vs. Text contrast. 41