A full stop is used at the end of an idea, and is an important rule in proper grammar. But text messages are changing the rules, as a new study finds digital messages ending with one aren’t sincere.

The results suggest skipping punctuation altogether, as it indicates you are answering spontaneously and heartfelt.

Binghamton University’s Harpur College observed 126 students, who read a series of messages displayed as texts on a screen or handwritten notes on loose-leaf paper, which were similar to notes students passed around before texting was available. In the 16 experimental exchanges, the sender’s message contained a statement followed by an invitation phrased as a question such as, “Dave gave me his extra ticket. Wanna come?”

The receiver then gave a one-word response like “Okay,” “Sure,” “Yeah” or “Yup.” Half of the participants’ responses were with a full stop and the other half did not use it.

Based on the responses, text messages that ended with a full stop were rated less sincere than text messages that did not end with a period. The students who read the notes on the paper reported that full stop or not, they felt the message was sincere.

These results suggest that punctuation can misconstrue or influence the meaning of text messages. The study concludes, “Not so much that the period is used to convey a lack of sincerity in text messages, but that punctuation is one of the cues used by senders, and understood by receivers, to convey pragmatic and social information.”

“Texting is lacking many of the social cues used in actual face-to-face conversations,” said Celia Klin, associate professor of psychology and associate dean at Binghamton University’s Harpur College. “When speaking, people easily convey social and emotional information with eye gaze, facial expressions, tone of voice, pauses, and so on.” “Texters rely on what they have available to them — emoticons, deliberate misspellings that mimic speech sounds and, according to our data, punctuation.”

Recently, Klin’s team conducted a follow-up study and found that text response with an exclamation mark is interpreted as more sincere.

句号用在一个意思的结束处，这是个重要语法原则。但是短信在改变这些规则。最新研究表明，带句号的短信显得不真诚。

研究建议发信息时略去标点符号，这显得你的回复自然、真诚。

纽约州立大学宾汉顿分校哈波学院对126名学生进行了试验，让他们阅读显示在屏幕上的短信或者写在活页上的便签（类似短信出现前，学生们传信息时常用的那种）。

在16组试验中，发送者发出去的短信含一个陈述句及一个问句邀请，比如，“戴夫把多出的一张票给我了，你去吗？”

收信者给出一个词的回复，比如“好啊”、“当然可以”、“嗯”或者“好

哒”。受试者中有一半人的回复以句号结

尾，另一半则没有。根据反馈，以句号结尾的短信被认为不如不带句号的真诚。

而阅读便签的受试者则认为，不管有没有句号内容一样真诚。该结果表明标点可以使短信的意思被曲解或受到影响。

研究总结道，“与其说句号使短信显得缺乏真诚，不如说标点是发送者使用、接受者所理解的实用社交提示。”

“短信中少了许多面对面交流才有的交流线索，”哈波学院副院长、心理学副教授西莉亚· 科林说。

“面对面时，借助眼神、面部表情、语调、停顿等线索，人们能很容易传达社交和情绪信息。”

“短信发送方需要依靠其它方式 — 表情符号、借用错别字拟声以及我们研究的标点符号。”

最近，科林的团队还进行了一个补充研究。研究发现，带感叹号的回复被认为更真诚。

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

   【自然地】zìrán de spontaneously unconstrained and unstudied in manner or behavior

    【误会】wùhuì misconstrue interpret mistakenly