Funny but not Credible? Why Using (Many) Emojis Decreases Message Credibility and Source Trustworthiness

Abstract

Emojis are paralinguistic elements that are used in computer-mediated communication to express emotions, convey tone, or simply depict objects or statements. This study examines how the (excessive) use of emojis affects knowledge, message credibility, and source trustworthiness. To this end, we conducted three online experiments using social media posts, in which we systematically varied the number of emojis and the source of the message. The results show that displaying many emojis decreases message credibility and source trustworthiness. As a mechanism explaining this effect, we also demonstrate that displaying many emojis is perceived as a persuasive attempt, triggering affective and cognitive reactance, and ultimately reducing message credibility. Moreover, the study shows that using (a large amount of) emojis in a message negatively affects factual knowledge.