Face With Raised Eyebrow Emoji

A yellow face with a flat mouth and one eyebrow raised higher than the other. The universal face of "I'm not buying what you're selling." Emojipedia describes it as conveying "suspicion, skepticism, concern, consideration, disbelief, and disapproval." It's the emoji you send when something doesn't add up, when someone's story has holes, or when you need to express doubt without committing to a full accusation.

The raised-eyebrow expression has a specific cultural icon attached to it. The emoji's expression has been compared to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's signature facial expression, known in wrestling as "The People's Eyebrow." Johnson began performing the eyebrow raise during his WWE career, calling it "The People's Eyebrow" after 1998 as an extension of his "People's Champ" persona. The expression became so iconic that it spawned a massive meme format in 2021, typically paired with the Vine Thud sound effect, becoming one of TikTok's most popular reaction templates. When someone sends 🤨, they're channeling the same energy The Rock deployed on millions of opponents: a wordless signal that says "really? you expect me to believe that?"

The emoji was approved in Unicode 10.0 (2017) alongside 🤩, 🤯, 🤭, and 🤪 as part of the reaction face expansion. Its expression has also been compared to comedian Stephen Colbert's signature look of feigned seriousness.

🤨 is the emoji of analytical doubt. On X, it's the one-emoji reply to claims that seem suspect: "I made $50K passive income last month" → 🤨. On TikTok, the Rock Eyebrow Raise meme (which uses photos/videos of Dwayne Johnson rather than the Unicode emoji) has become the dominant reaction format for expressing suspicion, typically accompanied by the Vine Thud sound effect. The Unicode 🤨 and the Rock meme serve the same cultural function despite being different media.

In group chats, 🤨 is the friend who catches inconsistencies. "You said you were staying in last night 🤨" is a gentle callout. "Interesting 🤨" after someone shares a questionable take is polite skepticism. It's less confrontational than 🤥 (which directly accuses someone of lying) and less passive-aggressive than 🙄 (which dismisses entirely). 🤨 stays engaged and asks for more evidence rather than writing someone off.

At work, 🤨 is useful in casual channels. "The timeline says two weeks 🤨" signals healthy skepticism about a deadline without being negative. It reads as analytical rather than cynical.

The raised eyebrow as an expression of skepticism is deeply ingrained in Western nonverbal communication. Charles Darwin documented it in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) as a component of the surprise-doubt spectrum. The single raised eyebrow, where one brow lifts while the other stays level, is more specifically associated with incredulity or disbelief than a full double-eyebrow raise (which indicates pure surprise).

But the cultural moment that gave this expression its most iconic ambassador came in professional wrestling. In the late 1990s, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson developed his signature "People's Eyebrow": one eyebrow raised, head slightly tilted, expressing amused contempt for whoever he was addressing. He named it after his wrestling persona "The People's Champ" (a tribute to Muhammad Ali). The expression became one of the most recognized gestures in sports entertainment.

Decades later, the expression went digital. In March 2021, edits pairing The Rock's eyebrow raise with the Vine Thud sound effect started appearing on TikTok and Instagram. By September 2021, the format had exploded. Know Your Meme documents that dedicated accounts like @the_rockreaction posted videos garnering over 7.1 million views. The Vine Thud, a dramatic bass sound effect that punctuates the eyebrow raise, became inseparable from the gesture. Users added the Rock eyebrow raise to any content that seemed suspect, creating a universal reaction template for digital skepticism.

When Unicode approved 🤨 in Unicode 10.0 (2017), The Rock meme hadn't happened yet. The emoji existed on its own terms: a generic skeptical expression. But the 2021 TikTok explosion retroactively gave the emoji a specific cultural referent. Now, sending 🤨 evokes not just generic doubt, but The People's Eyebrow specifically. The emoji and the meme have merged in cultural consciousness, the same way 🤓 merged with the 3D stock image nerd from Shutterstock.

Approved in Unicode 10.0 (2017) as U+1F928U+1F928 FACE WITH ONE EYEBROW RAISED. Renamed to "Face with Raised Eyebrow" in CLDR. Same batch as 🤩, 🤯, 🤭, 🤪, and 🤫. Part of the 2017 reaction face expansion that collectively transformed emoji expressiveness.

1. 1872Charles Darwin documents the raised eyebrow as an expression of doubt in "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals"
2. 1998Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson names his signature expression "The People's Eyebrow" during his WWE career↗
3. 2017Unicode 10.0 approves 🤨 as U+1F928 FACE WITH ONE EYEBROW RAISED↗
4. 2021The Rock Eyebrow Raise meme explodes on TikTok (7.1M views), paired with the Vine Thud sound effect↗

• •The Rock named his signature eyebrow raise "The People's Eyebrow" in 1998, extending his "People's Champ" wrestling persona (itself a tribute to Muhammad Ali). The expression has been compiled across 42 of his movie appearances by Screen Rant.
• •In September 2021, TikTok account @the_rockreaction posted a Rock eyebrow raise video that gained over 7.1 million views. The format pairs the eyebrow raise with the Vine Thud sound effect, creating a two-beat reaction: visual (eyebrow) + audio (thud).
• •Charles Darwin documented the raised eyebrow as an expression of doubt in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). The single raised eyebrow signals incredulity. A double raise signals surprise. Different muscles, different meanings.
• •🤨 arrived in the same 2017 Unicode 10.0 batch as 🤩, 🤯, 🤭, and 🤪. The Rock meme didn't happen until 2021, but retroactively gave the emoji a specific cultural referent it didn't originally have.
• •The eyebrow raise was compared to comedian Stephen Colbert's signature look of feigned seriousness during the design process. Emojipedia noted the resemblance when the emoji was first previewed, connecting it to Colbert's "truthiness" persona on The Colbert Report.
• •Research on cultural differences in reading facial expressions shows that East Asian cultures focus on the eyes while Western cultures focus on the mouth. This means 🤨's raised eyebrow registers as more intense in Japan and Korea, where eye position is the primary emotional signal, than in the US, where the flat mouth softens the expression.

• •Some people use 🤨 as general discomfort or confusion, but its primary register is skepticism and doubt. Sending 🤨 when you mean "I'm confused" (🤔 is better) can make it seem like you're questioning someone's honesty.
• •In some contexts, 🤨 from a manager can feel like surveillance rather than healthy skepticism. Power dynamics affect how doubt-emojis are received.
• •The Rock meme has made 🤨 more confrontational than it was pre-2021. Some recipients now read it as "I'm about to call you out" rather than the gentler "I have questions" it originally carried.

• •The 🤨 raised eyebrow became the "sus" emoji during the Among Us viral era (2020-2021). Players used 🤨 when suspecting an impostor.
• •The Rock's (Dwayne Johnson) famous eyebrow raise became a viral meme in 2021-2022, often paired with 🤨. The Vine boom sound effect version accumulated hundreds of millions of views across TikTok and YouTube.