If You Use the Internet, You Are Probably Familiar with Emoticons

If you use the Internet, you are probably familiar with emoticons: facial expressions displayed using a combination of typographic figures,

A) emblem
B) display rule
C) affect blend
D) decoding difference
E) g., :-) for a smile. Asian countries have their own set of emoticons; in these (which are viewed without having to turn one's head) , there are different smiling facial figures for a man smiling (^_^) and a woman smiling (^ . ^) , since in Japan, women are not supposed to exhibit a wide, uninhibited smile. This difference between the men's and women's emoticons in Japan is due to a(n) __________.