Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/312469 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Citation: 
[Journal:] Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science [ISSN:] 1552-7824 [Volume:] 52 [Issue:] 1 [Publisher:] Springer US [Place:] New York, NY [Year:] 2023 [Pages:] 119-139
Publisher: 
Springer US, New York, NY
Abstract: 
Facial emojis have increasingly permeated electronic word of mouth (eWOM), but the persuasive consequences of this phenomenon remain unclear. Drawing on emotions as social information (EASI) theory, this research reveals that facial emojis influence persuasion (e.g., product choice) by affecting emotional arousal and perceived ambiguity. While the effect through emotional arousal is generally positive, the effect through ambiguity depends on the emojis' function in eWOM: facial emojis that replace a verbal expression increase ambiguity and therefore reduce persuasion, whereas those that reiterate a verbal expression decrease ambiguity and therefore enhance persuasion. Both the emotional-arousal and ambiguity pathways determine the net persuasive effect. This research also explores two situations (high verbal context richness and eWOM from strong ties) where replacing facial emojis can increase persuasion. Finally, the authors show that facial emojis' persuasive power is generalizable to online brand communications, influencing key management outcomes such as click-through rates for digital ads.
Subjects: 
Emoji
Textual paralanguage
Electronic word of mouth
Persuasion
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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