Ambiguity. Ambiguity was one of several hypothesized interpretations that might result frommixedmessages.Hypotheses3aandH3bpredictedmoreambiguityfrommixedmessagesthanfrompuremessages.Ambiguityratingsindicatedthatalthoughanegativeverbal message plus smile had the highest raw score on ambiguity,it was not significantly different than several other combinations(including positive verbal message plus smile,positive plus nothing,negative verbal plus nothing,and oddly,negative verbiage with a frown),failing to support Hypothesis 3a. Moreover, the least ambiguous in absolute scores was the positive verbal message with a frown,rejecting Hypothesis 3b,although it was not significantly less ambiguous than some other combinations. Statistically,the only differences were that a negative verbal message plus a smile emoticon and a negative verbal message with a frown emoticon were more ambiguous than a positive verbal message with a frown. The biggest difference were between two mixed messages. For the positive message plus frown to show such little ambiguity suggests that the combination has a more specific connotation, as the next analysis addresses.