Smile! Positive Emojis Improve Reception and Intention to Use Constructive Feedback.

Feedback is essential to creative work. In fact, feedback is so valuable that online crowdwork platforms are sometimes used to gather it quickly and repeatedly. However, when feedback contains negative content, the receiver’s mood may suffer, as well as his or her perceptions of the feedback and provider. In response, researchers have explored techniques to mitigate the negative impacts of constructive comments; surprisingly, few studies have investigated non-verbal communication such as images. We report an exploratory study of how the presence of positive emojis in a critique can affect the receivers’ reactions. We found that the positive emojis increased receiver positivity, also decreasing annoyance and frustration. The emojis also evoked more positive perceptions of feedback providers, and increased intentions to apply the feedback to future work. We discuss implications for designing feedback platforms in ways that might encourage the addition of message-appropriate emojis.