This study aims to understand how hotel videos embedded with a smiling face emoji as a subliminal message affect consumers’ selection of hotels, with their brain activities measured and collected while they watched the videos. Data was collected from sixteen participants who completed two rounds of experiments. A chi-square test of homogeneity, paired sample t-test, and Bayes factor were performed to address the two proposed research questions. The results of this study reveal that participants’ selection of hotels would be significantly affected by the subliminal stimuli of a smiling face emoji. Meanwhile, neuroscientific data identifies significant differences between participants’ two (theta and beta) out of five bands of brainwaves while they were viewing hotel videos with and without the subliminal message. Suggestions for future studies and practical operations are also discussed.

Purpose: Music has a priming effect on product selection. The purpose of this paper is to extend the current understanding on this issue using an experimental design incorporating behavioural and brainwave data. Design/methodology/approach: An experiment with 40 participants was conducted to explore how and why wine tasting preferences would be primed by different genres of musical stimuli. Electroencephalographic measurement was adopted to measure participant brainwave activity in two experiments, each involving two rounds of wine tasting, and the treatment was administered between the two rounds. Findings: Significant associations between the musical stimulus genre and participant change in wine selection were found, and the musical stimuli resulted in different brainwave activities because participant β and γ wave activities significantly differed in the first and second wine tasting rounds. Correlational analyses indicated that α, β and γ wave activities generated by the musical stimuli were significantly but negatively correlated with α wave activity. α wave activity in the musical stimulus phases was significantly negatively correlated with β wave activity in the second round of wine tasting, and the other associations were significant and positive. Originality/value: This study highlighted the priming effect of musical stimuli in wine tasting. Empirical evidence derived from experimental research was analysed with behavioural and brainwave data. This study’s original contribution is that it explored wine tasting preferences from a neuromarketing perspective. The results of this study can provide empirical evidence on how to effectively use music in marketing strategies.

Encouraging feedback positively affects learners’ self-efficacy; in language learning, self-efficacy predicts language learner performance and behavior. Our research involved three studies to expand knowledge about why and how we can enhance English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ self-efficacy beliefs in online settings. In Study 1, based on an online survey with 310 participants, we ascertained the extent to which EFL learners with greater self-efficacy tend to challenge themselves by learning content that requires a proficiency level that is higher than their current proficiency. In Study 2, we recruited 120 EFL learners; the results indicate that positive feedback via emojis embedded in online courses could significantly boost EFL learners’ self-efficacy beliefs about learning English. Study 3 involved 35 participants and extended the understanding provided by the first two studies, showing that EFL learners not only like to use emojis for computer-mediated communication (CMC), but also prefer to receive them as feedback. This research adds to knowledge on “why” and “how” we can enhance EFL learners’ self-efficacy beliefs in online contexts. We systematically provide empirical evidence regarding the aforementioned issues and demonstrate that positive feedback through emojis has great potential to enhance EFL learners’ self-efficacy, even when such feedback is subliminal.

It is well known that teachers’ feedback plays an important role in students’ learning, as it enhances learners’ cognitive development; yet there has been little research on how positive feedback given in the form of emojis works in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) courses. In this study, an experiment was designed to clarify how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ emotions are affected when such feedback is presented (no feedback vs. supraliminal feedback vs. subliminal feedback) and to examine how the feedback correlates with their learning effectiveness. A within-subject experiment with 33 participants was designed and administered to examine three proposed research hypotheses. Participants’ frontal asymmetry alpha (FAA) and their recollection of the learning contents were used as the index of their emotional valence and learning effectiveness. The results revealed that positive feedback given in the form of emojis generated a positive/approach emotion when it was shown subliminally. Furthermore, a significant relationship was seen between EFL learners’ positive emotion and their learning effectiveness; such a finding was supported by the significant relationship between the modes of emoji presentation and the participants’ learning effectiveness. This study’s originality and value lies in the innovative research method that was adopted and the interesting findings that it yielded. The limitations of this study such as research design and sampling are reported. The study also has practical and theoretical implications for practitioners and scholars of CALL for praxis and future research.