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Top1. Introduction
Face emojis allow people who do not find it easy to express themselves through verbal cues (e.g., text) to convey their emotions through these nonverbal cues. Nonverbal cues are key indicators of the feelings and intention of communicators, especially when other people are unable to see them as they communicate (Hogenboom et al., 2013). Using face emojis creates the sense of a face-to-face conversation, eliminating the likelihood of misunderstanding and confusion (Harris & Paradice, 2007; Riordan & Kreuz, 2010; Hill, 2016). In user-generated reviews (UGRs), many people use face emojis to increase the impact of their message, such as by adding two smiley faces to show their delight with a purchase or an angry face to show negativity when writing comments about a product. The social information processing (SIP) model (Walther, 2008) posits that users who are unfamiliar with each other form opinions based on textual interactions. Users require a sufficient amount of message exchange to achieve “normal” relationships online. The review area on e-commerce websites allows consumers to exchange information, which helps them better achieve a “normal” relationship. A key aspect of the SIP model is that different people may view and evaluate the same information in very different ways because people do not objectively evaluate the information itself but evaluate it through their subjective cognition. This evaluation is influenced by the other information that appears simultaneously and the context (Crick & Dodge, 1994). People may understand and evaluate information through face emojis, which are nonverbal cues, in UGRs. However, how consumers react to face emojis in UGRs? Several studies have examined the use of face emojis in email, in instant messaging and on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook (Lo, 2008; Luor et al., 2010). The proliferation of emojis in marketing communications such as advertisements has also been explored (Das et al., 2019; Luangrath et al., 2017). However, research on how consumers react to face emojis in UGRs is still sparse. To fill this gap, this research examines how face emojis in UGRs influence consumer perceptions.
Das et al. (2019) documented that the use of emojis in advertisements influences purchase intention. Advertising and review presentation are both important elements of marketing communication; therefore, this work first examines the influence of emojis on purchase intention. Furthermore, in a face-to-face conversational context, facial expression is often viewed as an important means of judging whether the person to whom one is talking can be trusted (Boone & Buck, 2003). The trustworthiness of the source of a review is also a vital aspect that affects consumer behavior (Lee & Youn, 2009; Lee et al., 2011). The authors also examine the trustworthiness of reviews to explore the influence of face emojis in UGRs.
Carey (1980) found that the more nonverbal cues there are in a message, the stronger the effect on the reader. Consumers can convey an intense positive regard for a product through the use of multiple emoticons in UGRs. For example, in “The cake is so tasty!”, the number of emoticons allows consumers to “feel” this sentiment far more than they would if there were only one emoticon. Face emojis in UGRs can be used to influence consumer perceptions, and the number of emoticons is one of the important factors in the presentation effect of reviews. This study further explores how the number of face emojis used in UGRs influences consumers.