Identity Signals in Emoji Do not Influence Perception of Factual Truth on Twitter

TL;DR

This study investigates whether skin-toned emoji and profile photos influence perceptions of factual truth on Twitter, finding no significant effect, thus suggesting such identity signals do not manipulate truth perception.

Contribution

The paper provides empirical evidence that emoji and profile photos do not affect how readers perceive the truthfulness of tweets.

Findings

Emoji and profile photos do not influence truth ratings.

Identity signals in emoji do not manipulate factual perception.

Results support robustness against fake profile manipulation.

Abstract

Prior work has shown that Twitter users use skin-toned emoji as an act of self-representation to express their racial/ethnic identity. We test whether this signal of identity can influence readers' perceptions about the content of a post containing that signal. In a large scale (n=944) pre-registered controlled experiment, we manipulate the presence of skin-toned emoji and profile photos in a task where readers rate obscure trivia facts (presented as tweets) as true or false. Using a Bayesian statistical analysis, we find that neither emoji nor profile photo has an effect on how readers rate these facts. This result will be of some comfort to anyone concerned about the manipulation of online users through the crafting of fake profiles.