Is the Inner Imitation–Emotional Empathy–Emotional Commitment Process Induced by Emojis Mainly Women’s Consciousness Process?

Abstract

This study aimed to specify the group of inner imitation–emotional empathy–emotional commitment, which is the path of emotional commitment induced by emojis. To determine whether this relationship is moderated by gender, inner imitation was set as the independent variable, emotional empathy as the mediating variable, and emotional commitment as the dependent variable. Results showed that the relationship between emotional empathy and emotional commitment and the mediating effect of emotional empathy when inner imitation affects emotional commitment through emotional empathy were stronger in women than in men. This suggests that the inner imitation–emotional empathy–emotional commitment process, which is an emotional commitment path via emojis, is mainly a conscious process for women. Furthermore, in that emotional empathy in inner imitation in this mediating process is regarded as a low-consciousness process based on mirror neurons, the movement of emojis is speculated to play a key role in strengthening this process.