The effect of the angry emoji position on consumers’ perception of the sender’s anger

Emoji are widely adopted in smartphones, for input methods, and on social networks. As ubiquitous characters, emoji transcend linguistic borders and are gaining worldwide popularity. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the position of the angry emoji in negative online consumer reviews on the consumers’ perceptions of the sender’s anger. The present study first proposed the main location effect of the position of the angry emoji on the consumers’ perception of the sender’s anger. That is, compared with the angry emoji at the end of a sentence, the angry emoji in the middle of a sentence led to a stronger perception of anger. Based on visual information processing of the location effect, the current research proposed that the position salience perception and the sentiment-strengthening perception of the angry emoji serially mediated the above main effect. Further, we hypothesized that word review extremity moderated the effect of the position of the angry emoji on the consumers’ perceptions of the sender’s anger. For this paper, we conducted one eye-tracking experiment and three laboratory experiments. In Study 1, we conducted a pretest, which was the eye-tracking experiment. The product used in the pretest was a thermos mug. Study 1 was a 3 (one emoji at the end of a sentence vs. one in the middle of a sentence vs. no emoji) × 2 (feature description: feature one precedes feature two vs. feature two precedes feature one) between-subjects design. The product used in Study 1 was a laptop. Study 2 was a 2 (the position of the angry emoji at the end vs. in the middle of a sentence) × 2 (feature description: feature one precedes feature two vs. feature two precedes feature one) between-subjects design. Study 2 used a gel-ink pen refill as the target product. In Study 2, we measured the consumers’ perceptions of the sender’s anger, the angry emoji sentiment-strengthening perception, and the position salience perception created by the angry emoji. Study 3 was a 2 (the position of the angry emoji at the end vs. in the middle of a sentence) × 2 (word review extremity: moderate vs. extreme) between-subjects design. Study 3 used a coat as the target product. The results of the pretest demonstrated the effectiveness of visual information processing on the location effect. The position of the angry emoji influenced the participants’ attention. The angry emoji in the middle of a sentence led to higher fixation counts and longer fixation durations. The results of Study 1 demonstrated the main effect in this paper, which was that an angry emoji in the middle of a sentence led to a stronger perception of the sender’s anger than did an angry emoji at the end of a sentence. The results of Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 and tested the serial-mediating roles of the position salience perception and the sentiment-strengthening perception of the angry emoji. The results of Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 and tested the moderating role of word review extremity in the relationship between the position of the angry emoji and the consumers’ perception of the sender’s anger. When we considered the extreme word review, the influence of the position of the angry emoji on the sender’s perception of anger was not significant; however, when we considered the moderate word review, the angry emoji in the middle of a sentence significantly enhanced the consumers’ perception of the sender’s anger. The current research extended the extant literature in several dimensions. First, it supplemented the literature in the field of marketing on the effects of the emoji on consumers’ responses. Second, it supplemented the literature of application contexts and the influence of the location effect. Third, the present research provided empirical evidence for emoji functions. Fourth, the present study supplemented the literature of online consumer reviews.