Unicode ☑︎ becomes emoji in Excel on macOS Catalina (10.15.7)

Question

I am using Excel 16.46 on macOS Catalina 10.15.7 and here is what I am experiencing.

1. Using macOS's character viewer — command+control+space — I've entered the “ballot box with check” Unicode character (☑︎) into an Excel cell. I get aa; when I do it again, I get two blank squares instead of the intended symbol.

2. When I click away — deactivating the cell — the two squares becomes the “Man in Tuxedo” emoji:

3. If I reeenter the cell, I see the checkmark and an additional box.

What is going? Why does the checkbox become “Man in a Tuxedo” Emoji?

1. 
2. 
3. 

Update I tested other characters. I found

1. other odd pairings and
2. it doesn't happen if the Combining Enclosed Square is included in the cell

I randomly entered unicode characters:

☐└◻︎⃞■□▩✓√▫️▧☒⏍▣⥟➢➡︎☞➨➬➸⤅⤏⤁⤀☜⤃☒▫︎‣▷▶︎❄︎❀✸✡︎✭✾✔︎❍▷▼✂︎☑︎☕︎✌︎✍︎☄︎⚲⚢⚣⚤⚯⚮⚭⚬⚩

and everything rendered correctly (or as an empty box). If I deleted the Combining Enclosed Square, it did not, and many other unrelated emojis emerged:

Answer 1

Select the "Segoe UI Symbol" font for that cell.