Investigating effects of emoji on neutral narrative text: evidence from eye movements and perceived emotional valence

Robus, C. M., Hand, C. J. , Filik, R. and Pitchford, M. (2020) Investigating effects of emoji on neutral narrative text: evidence from eye movements and perceived emotional valence. Computers in Human Behavior, 109, 106361. (doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2020.106361)

Full text not currently available from Enlighten.

Abstract

Digital images of faces such as emoji in virtual communication have become increasingly popular, but current research findings are inconsistent regarding their emotional effects on perceptions of text. Similarly, emoji effects on reading behaviours are largely unknown and require further examination. The present study (N = 41) investigated how the position and emotional valence of emoji in neutral narrative sentences influenced eye movements during reading and perceptions of sentence valence. Participants read neutral narrative sentences containing smiling or frowning emoji in sentence-initial or sentence-final positions and rated the perceived emotional valence of the sentence. Results from linear mixed-effects models demonstrated significantly longer fixations on sentence-final emoji and longer sentence reading times when emoji were in sentence-final positions. These findings are comparable to sentence ‘wrap-up’ effects witnessed in the processing of lexical units during sentence reading, providing new evidence towards the way readers integrate emoji into contextual processing. However, no impact of emoji valence or position on first-pass target word processing or sentence-valence ratings were found. This would refute previous suggestions that digital faces influence text valence, raising questions about reader preference for emoji or sentence sentiment, the influence of sentence formatting, and delivery/display mechanism on these effects.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Hand, Dr Christopher and Filik, Dr Ruth
Creator Roles:
Hand, C. J.Formal analysis, Resources, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing, Visualization
Authors: Robus, C. M., Hand, C. J., Filik, R., and Pitchford, M.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Psychology
College of Social Sciences > School of Education
Journal Name:Computers in Human Behavior
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:0747-5632
ISSN (Online):1873-7692
Published Online:03 April 2020

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record