How sajiao (playing cute) wins forgiveness: The effectiveness of emojis in rebuilding trust through apology

IF 2.1 2区文学 Q2 COMMUNICATION Discourse & Communication Pub Date : 2022-09-30 DOI:10.1177/17504813221123850

Kun-Hsin Yang

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Prior studies have found that emojis can contribute to rebuilding customers’ trust when after-sale staff apologize to them, but studies on the different types of emojis and their different levels of effectiveness in rebuilding trust are still needed. In this paper, we explore the different types and frequencies of emojis and their effectiveness in rebuilding trust based on commercial discourses. Our data are collected from conversations between after-sale staff and customers during Ali Trademanager after-sale service. We find three types of emojis frequently used when after-sale staff apologizing to customers: face-related emojis, gesture-related emojis, and object-related emojis. Moreover, face-related emojis are the most frequently used, as their nature is to express emotion and attitude. The most effective emojis are the whimper emoji and kiss emoji, which are used by after-sale staff for sajiao (literally, ‘playing cute’). On the other hand, we show that the least effective emojis are the sorry emoji and happy emoji, which are deemed insincere because they violate the quality maxim and quantity maxim in the Cooperative Principle. This paper thus contributes to understanding the nature and function of emojis in commercial communication.

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“撒娇”如何赢得原谅:表情符号在道歉中重建信任的有效性

先前的研究发现，当售后人员向客户道歉时，表情符号有助于重建客户的信任，但仍需研究不同类型的表情符号及其在重建信任方面的不同有效性。在本文中，我们探讨了表情符号的不同类型和频率，以及它们在基于商业话语重建信任方面的有效性。我们的数据是从Ali Trademanager售后服务期间售后人员与客户的对话中收集的。我们发现售后人员在向客户道歉时经常使用三种表情符号：面部表情符号、手势表情符号和物体表情符号。此外，与面部相关的表情符号是最常用的，因为它们的本质是表达情感和态度。最有效的表情符号是哭哭啼啼的表情符号和亲吻表情符号，这两种表情符号被售后人员用来表示sajiao（字面意思是“耍可爱”）。另一方面，我们发现效果最差的表情符号是抱歉的表情符号和高兴的表情符号，它们被认为是不真诚的，因为它们违反了合作原则中的质量准则和数量准则。因此，本文有助于理解表情符号在商业传播中的性质和功能。

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来源期刊

Discourse & Communication COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

3.30

自引率

5.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Discourse & Communication is an international, peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles that pay specific attention to the qualitative, discourse analytical approach to issues in communication research. Besides the classical social scientific methods in communication research, such as content analysis and frame analysis, a more explicit study of the structures of discourse (text, talk, images or multimedia messages) allows unprecedented empirical insights into the many phenomena of communication. Since contemporary discourse study is not limited to the account of "texts" or "conversation" alone, but has extended its field to the study of the cognitive, interactional, social, cultural.