The influence of emoji meaning multipleness on perceived online review helpfulness: The mediating role of processing fluency

Emoji is widely used in electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and online consumer reviews across various social media platforms and online retailers, but the boundary condition of its effect on perceived helpfulness and its underlying mechanisms have not been examined in the extant literature. This research investigates the effect of emoji meaning multipleness on review helpfulness through two experiments. The results show that multiple meaning emojis lead to less helpful perception, but user expertise with emojis moderates such an effect. Further, processing fluency plays the mediating role, explaining the relationship between emoji meaning multipleness and perceived review helpfulness. The findings of the present research offer important insights into the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of the effective use of emoji in eWOM or online reviews.