Emotional Infographic: Replacing Complementary Graphics and Signs with Anticipated Emotional Expressions

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis:  Among all forms of information on social media such as text, picture, video and infographic, graphic presentation of the data or data visualization has gain tremendous attention. Current studies on infographic are mostly descriptive introducing the data visualization tools and different hybrid forms on new media platforms (e.g., Weber & Rall; Mogos). With over 1000 infographic on CDC website, traditional health poster features has been incorporated into infographic format to promote health and prevention information. However, current infographics are lacking of emotional information therefore neglecting the interaction of emotion and reasoning in persuasion processes. Using the affect-reason-involvement (ARI) model (Buck, 2002), this study investigates how adding emotional information by creating emotional infographic would benefit the persuasive effect. Instead of showing warning signs or other graphic indicators, this study aims to design infographic with anticipated emotional expressions. By transforming the warning signs or graphic components on the infograhic to emotional expressions, we anticipate higher level of involvement when viewing the infographic therefore increasing the persuasive effects of the infographic or sharing intentions on social media platforms.  

Methods: College students from a large US university will be recruited for an experimental study. A 5 (Web content combination) X 2 (involvement level: high vs. low) factorial design will be employed in this study. Participants will be randomly assigned to five conditions: text only, text with non-emotional photo, text with emotional photo, text with non-emotional infographic and text with emotional infographic. 

Results: Emotional infopraphic will generate higher level of involvement, which includes both emotional and analytical involvement.

Conclusions: Making the data not only graphical but also emotional would increase the persuasive effects as well as sharing intention on social media platforms.

Implications for research and/or practice: This study would benefit the design of health related infographic and improve the persuasive effects when presenting factual information.