Recent technological advances have allowed businesses to adopt emojis when interacting with consumers. To gain in-depth theoretical and managerial insight into this trend, five pre-registered studies (1 field observation and four controlled experiments) indicate that emojis in digital communication work as heuristic cues that might have a differential effect depending on elaboration likelihood and outcome valence. Drawing on the Heuristic Information Processing and elaboration likelihood model, this research reveals that emojis can systematically influence consumers' elaboration. Findings indicate that low elaboration in positive encounters results in a positive heuristic cue boost (emojis improve customer evaluation). In turn, high elaboration on negative service outcomes makes the heuristic content relevant, such that positive (vs. negative) emojis will bring attention to and reinforce the interaction's positive (vs. negative) aspects. This research contributes to emerging studies on the role of emojis in digital communication.

中文翻译：

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表情符号作为启发式线索：表情符号在在线服务交互中的多方面作用

最近的技术进步使得企业可以在与消费者互动时采用表情符号。为了深入了解这一趋势，五项预先注册的研究（一项现场观察和四项对照实验）表明，数字通信中的表情符号作为启发式线索，可能会根据阐述可能性和结果效价产生不同的效果。这项研究利用启发式信息处理和阐述可能性模型，表明表情符号可以系统地影响消费者的阐述。研究结果表明，积极接触中的详细阐述会导致积极的启发式提示增强（表情符号可以提高客户评价）。反过来，对负面服务结果的高度阐述使启发式内容具有相关性，因此正面（相对于负面）表情符号将引起人们对互动的正面（相对于负面）方面的关注并加强。这项研究有助于关于表情符号在数字通信中的作用的新兴研究。