People Who End Texts This Way Often Come Across As Incredibly Rude, Says Research
Ron Lach | CanvaTexting is one of the most popular ways for people to keep in touch these days. I rarely use my phone to make phone calls anymore. As with any means of communication, texting has its own set of rules, some that everyone knows, like not typing in all caps, leaving someone on read (debatable), or overusing the reaction emojis.
You wouldn't want to create the wrong impression, right? But some rules are more subtle, like avoiding using sarcasm (it doesn't always translate) and apparently, never sending texts that end with a period.
The trouble is that most of us — okay, fine, us older folks —have learned the rules of formal writing in school and instinctively add a period to feel polished. But apparently, anyone using formal punctuation, especially a period, is coming across all wrong.
Research found that people who send texts that end with a period are thought of as rude and less sincere
Katie Franklin / Unsplash
A 2016 study called "Texting insincerely: The Role of the Period in Text Messaging," conducted by Celia Klin and her team of researchers at Binghamton University, found that a specific punctuation mark, the dreaded period, was causing major texting miscommunication.
126 Binghamton undergraduates recruited for the study were given a series of exchanges that looked like text messages or handwritten notes. The 16 experimental exchanges started with a statement followed by an invitation phrased as a question (e.g., Steve gave me his extra tickets. Wanna come?).
The receiver's answer was a one-word reply that either ended with a period — Sure. — or ended with no punctuation at all. Based on the participants' responses, text messages that ended with a period were seen as much more insincere than those without punctuation. The same exchanges in the form of handwritten notes didn't show any difference — the period was still perceived as cold in the context of the response.
According to Klin, the study's results suggest that punctuation influences a text's perceived meaning
Even though most of the important social and contextual clues were gone, the sincerity of the short messages was judged differently depending on whether a period was there or not.
"Texting is lacking many of the social cues used in actual face-to-face conversations. When speaking, people easily convey social and emotional information with eye gaze, facial expressions, tone of voice, pauses, and so on. (It should be noted that communication research has shown that nonverbal cues like tone, facial expression, and gesture play a significant role in conveying emotion in face-to-face conversation.)
People obviously can't use these mechanisms when they're texting. Thus, it makes sense that texters rely on what they have available to them: emoticons, deliberate misspellings that mimic speech sounds, and, according to our data, punctuation," said Klin.
In a follow-up study, Klin's team discovered that a text response with an exclamation mark is thought of as more, rather than less, sincere. "That's not surprising, but it broadens our claim," she added. "Given that people are wonderfully adept at communicating complex and nuanced information in conversations, it's not surprising that as texting evolves, people are finding ways to convey the same types of information in their texts."
Remember: if you don't want to come off as insincere, don't use a period in your texts
It's perfectly fine to leave punctuation out of your texts; you aren't emailing your boss, after all. And if you want to come off as enthusiastic and fun, use an exclamation mark, or three!!!
Christine Schoenwald is a writer, performer, and frequent contributor to YourTango. She's had articles featured in The Los Angeles Times, Salon, Bustle, Medium, Huffington Post, Business Insider, and Woman's Day, among many others.
