Putting your best face forward: How instructor emoji use influences students’ impressions of credibility, immediacy, and liking

Abstract

This project explores the impacts of emojis on students’ impressions when used in a course welcome email. We adopt a 4 × 3 factorial design to determine how different emojis (i.e., [InlineMediaObject not available: see fulltext.], [InlineMediaObject not available: see fulltext.], [InlineMediaObject not available: see fulltext.]) impact students’ impressions of credibility, immediacy, and liking. Data from students (N = 368) indicates emoji choice does impact impressions. Consistently, instructors’ emoji use resulted in decreased perceived competence and trustworthiness but increased perceived caring, immediacy, and liking. Findings have implications for instructors who engage in technologically-mediated out-of-class communication and want to strengthen early student-instructor relationships. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.