Rules, Reciprocity, and Emojis: An Exploratory Study on Flirtatious Texting with Romantic Partners

Abstract

ABSTRACT Romantic partners expect and follow implicit rules for flirtatious texting. This mixed-methods exploratory study reviewed survey data and content analyzed flirtatious texts from 200 participants to discover specific communication rules and the level of flirtatious texting similarity. Each participant uploaded five to seven screenshots of recent flirtatious texts for analysis. Coding included similarity in emoji use, message length, timing, and the number of texts sent. Results from the quantitative survey, open-ended questions, and coding of 1042 uploaded screenshots revealed that communicators desire and provide a high degree of similarity when flirting, including emoji use as well as the length, frequency, and timing of texts.