The role of the periode (.) in text messaging might be more more significant than previously thought. Text messages that ended with a periode were rated less sincere than those that did not, a study finds.

The study was conducted by a team of five researchers from the Department of Technology within the Binghamton University in the United States. Remarkable is that for handwritten notes, no such difference was to be found. On the flip side, text messages ending with for intance exclamation marks are interpreted as more profound.

Social information

"We ask whether punctuation – specifically, the period – may serve as a cue for pragmatic and social information", researchers say on ScienceDirect. "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