The Persuasive Power of Emoticons in Electronic Word-of-Mouth Communication on Social Networking Services

Emotional expressions are ubiquitous in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication, but their effect on eWOM persuasiveness and the underlying mechanisms in the context of social networking services (SNS) have been underexplored. This research focuses on an extensively used nonverbal emotional cue in computer-mediated communication—the emoticon. Drawing on the emotion as social information model (EASI), we propose a conceptual framework to understand whether, how, and when emoticons influence the persuasiveness of eWOM on SNS. Results from a field experiment and a series of online experiments show that emoticons can increase eWOM persuasiveness through the mediating effects of enhanced recipient empathy and trust toward the sender and that these effects vary across situations. Specifically, the persuasive effect of emoticons occurs for both positive and negative eWOM when recipients and senders are close to each other. However, this effect occurs only for negative eWOM when recipients and senders have distant relationships. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings and identify several opportunities for future research.