This study applies the Feelings-as-Information Theory (FIT) to investigate how non-face emojis in user-generated content (UGC) influence perceived review credibility through positive affect and processing fluency, and how these effects vary by review valence and involvement.
Two experiments were conducted: a 3 × 2 between-subjects design with review valence as a contextual factor, and a 3 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design with involvement acting as a boundary condition for the early-stage impact of emojis on perceived credibility via positive affect and processing fluency.
Study 1 shows that in positive reviews, low-relevance (LR) and high-relevance (HR) non-face emojis enhance perceived credibility by boosting positive affect and processing fluency, respectively. In negative reviews, LR emojis reduce perceived credibility by impairing processing fluency, while HR emojis enhance it by supporting processing fluency. Study 2 reveals that these effects are attenuated for highly involved consumers.
The findings enrich research on emojis, image–text relevance, multimodal communication and FIT. Limitations include the experimental design and focus on positive affect and processing fluency, suggesting opportunities for future research using broader methods and additional mechanisms.
Marketing managers, UGC platforms and content creators can strategically use non-face emojis to optimise emoji marketing, resulting in more valuable evaluations.
This research introduces a novel categorisation of non-face emojis into low- and high-relevance types based on emoji-text alignment. Furthermore, it demonstrates that their credibility effects depend on both message-level (review valence) and consumer-level (involvement) contingencies.
