When it comes to text messages, punctuation says more than you might think

By AFPRelaxnews

Published: Feb 22, 2025 08:31:34 AM IST

Updated: Feb 21, 2025 06:36:15 PM IST

Research suggests that adding extra periods to your texts makes them seem more intense. Image: Shutterstock

Receiving a message from your boss saying “Come and see me” is never reassuring, but when it's written as “Come. See. Me.” the pressure goes up a notch. The tone changes immediately, and it takes on a sense of urgency that's almost authoritarian. Now, an American study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, reveals that the use of extra periods strongly influences the perception of emotions in a text message.

A research team from the Binghamton University, State University of New York, led by psychologist Celia Klin, has investigated how certain punctuation structures influence the emotional interpretation of text messages. In particular, the researchers studied the effect of periods placed between words and the fragmentation of sentences into several distinct text bubbles.

Celia Klin and colleagues had already demonstrated that the addition of a period to an isolated word (“OK.” instead of “OK”) was not just a matter of grammar, but was often perceived as a sign of irritation or firmness. After making this discovery, they set out to explore other frequent trends in text messages. The first involves adding a period after each word (“Yuck. Call. An. Exterminator.”), while the second involves placing each word in a separate text bubble (“No,” followed by “Just,” then “Go”).

To do this, they asked students to read a series of text message exchanges and to rate how disgusted or frustrated they believed the texter who sent them to be. In the case of both structures studied, these ways of writing out texts were perceived as amplifying the emotional intensity of the message.

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The researchers explain that, unlike a face-to-face conversation where voice, expressions and body language help to adjust tone, text messages lack these cues. To compensate, users resort to “textisms” -- graphic variations and spelling changes that convey emotional nuances. "Texters are much more limited than speakers in conveying important social and pragmatic information," says Celia Klin quoted in a news release.

Far from being trivial, these textisms play a similar role to pauses in an oral conversation. A period after each word can be perceived as choppy, jerky speech, conveying exasperation (“No. Just. Stop.”). Similarly, sending each word separately mimics the rhythm of an emphatically spoken sentence. "Our findings indicate that the recipients of texts often interpret textisms as they were intended, as conveying emotion and intensity," the researcher adds.

While this study highlights the subtleties of written communication in the digital age, it also indicates that these effects mainly concern messages conveying negative emotions. Further research is needed to determine whether the phenomenon is also observed in a more formal writing, or with positive emotions. One thing is certain, however: punctuation in text messages is never neutral!