The emoji scale: A facial scale for the 21st century

Emojis have grown in popularity as a method for digital communication. Recently, there has been interest in the connection between emojis and emotional response to consumer products. Research has been conducted linking emojis and the emotional response from food stimuli in adults via avenues such as Twitter, and in children. An online study was conducted to assess the application of an emoji-based pictorial facial scale with childFrren ages 8-11 (grades 3rd, 4th, and 5th). Two hundred and fourteen participants were asked to evaluate their liking and emotional response using the Peryam and Kroll (P&K) scale (super good/super bad) and pictorial emoji scale, respectively, for both food and non-food experiences. Scores from each grade level were not statistically different. The responses from both scales had similar mean scores and distribution patterns for all experiences with no incidence of bias toward any one emoji. These results support the suitability of the emoji scale for measuring emotional response using verbal stimuli names with children ages 8-11 in the United States and indicate it is a reasonable alternative to the P&K scale for this demographic.