Emojis with a Stable Interpretation Among Individuals in Japan

Emojis are widely used to measure users’ emotional states; however, their interpretations can vary over time. While some emojis exhibit consistent meanings, others may be perceived differently at other times. To utilize emojis as indicators in consumer studies, it is essential to ensure that their interpretations remain stable over time. However, the long-term stability of emoji interpretations remains uncertain. Therefore, this study aims to identify emojis with stable and unstable interpretations. We collected 256 responses in an online survey twice, one week apart, in which participants rated the valence and arousal levels of 74 facial emojis on a nine-point scale. Wilcoxon rank-sum tests showed unstable interpretations for seven of the seventy-four emojis. Further, a hierarchical cluster analysis categorized 67 stable emojis into the following four clusters based on valence and arousal dimensions: strong positive sentiment, moderately positive sentiment, neutral sentiment, and negative sentiment. Consequently, we recommend the use of the 67 emojis with stable interpretations as reliable measures of emotional states in consumer studies.