The Name–Emotion Effect: A Conceptual Extension of Affective Priming and Framing to Recipient-Assigned Digital Contact Labels

Abstract

People often see a contact name or nickname when they receive a digital message. The label may be neutral, affectionate, or negative. This paper asks whether that label can influence how a person feels about, or interprets, an otherwise identical message from someone they already know. The term Name–Emotion Effect (NEE) is proposed for this possibility. Related research on affective priming, digital names, and emotional cues provides a rationale for investigating it, but does not directly settle this specific question. The paper distinguishes immediate feelings from message interpretation, considers the receiver's prior opinion of the sender, and outlines a controlled study. No new data were collected, and the proposed research gap is based on a focused rather than systematic review.