Much like speech itself, texting has its own set of rules and etiquette, but one study by Binghamton University has honed in and made some interesting findings about the humble period. While speaking to someone face-to-face, you often get facial cues as to how someone is feeling towards you – that phenomenon doesn’t exist in texting, and Binghamton’s findings have suggested that using punctuation, specifically ending your texts in a period, can give off the perception on insincerity. The following is an excerpt from the study’s abstract:
“Participants read short exchanges in which the response either did or did not include a sentence-final period. When the exchanges appeared as text messages, the responses that ended with a period were rated as less sincere than those that did not end with a period.”
For the record, the study involved only 126 undergraduate students, though arguably they might be the most appropriate population to ask about the nuances of texting. Unusually, when the students in the study examined similar passages in handwritten text, no such bias existed – perhaps there’s a deep-seeded perception that texts are just more emotionally fake; who knows. All the same, I’m going to end this article without a period, just in case
What do you think about the findings of this study? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: ScienceDirect via engadget
Image credit: Garry Knight
