Is the period really “pissed”? The effect of punctuation and message length on perceptions in digital communication

IF 7.6 2区管理学 Q1 INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE

Telematics and Informatics Pub Date : 2025-02-01 DOI:10.1016/j.tele.2025.102241

Nenagh Kemp , Rebecca Kovacic , Elisabeth Beyersmann

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Including a period at the end of a one-word text message (“yes.”) can elicit perceptions of insincerity and negativity. We assessed whether these negative perceptions would hold in longer messages. Australian undergraduates (N = 200) read 30 fictitious message exchanges; positive, neutral, or negative in valence. Exchanges ended in a short (one word), medium (three to four words), or long (six to eight words) message; half with a final period, half without. Participants rated how they thought the friend felt about their message, on a 7-point scale. Across valences, messages with a period were rated more negatively than those without, as were both short and medium messages. In long messages, the period’s presence or absence did not significantly affect ratings. The results imply that this punctuation mark can convey emotional or grammatical information, depending on message length. The findings have implications for the way people compose and interpret digital messages.

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句号真的 "生气 "了吗？标点符号和信息长度对数字通信感知的影响

在一个单词的短信末尾加上句号（“yes”）会让人觉得不真诚和消极。我们评估了这些负面看法是否会在更长的信息中保持不变。澳大利亚本科生（N = 200）阅读30个虚构的信息交流；正价的，中性的或负价的交流以简短（一个单词）、中等（三到四个单词）或长（六到八个单词）的信息结束；一半有期末课，一半没有。参与者按照7分的标准来评价他们认为这位朋友对他们的信息的感受。在不同的效价中，有句号的信息比没有句号的信息被评价得更负面，短信息和中等信息也是如此。在长信息中，这段时间的存在与否对评分没有显著影响。结果表明，这个标点符号可以传达情感或语法信息，这取决于信息的长度。这一发现对人们撰写和解读数字信息的方式具有启示意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Telematics and Informatics INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE-

CiteScore

17.00

自引率

4.70%

发文量

104

审稿时长

24 days

期刊介绍： Telematics and Informatics is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes cutting-edge theoretical and methodological research exploring the social, economic, geographic, political, and cultural impacts of digital technologies. It covers various application areas, such as smart cities, sensors, information fusion, digital society, IoT, cyber-physical technologies, privacy, knowledge management, distributed work, emergency response, mobile communications, health informatics, social media's psychosocial effects, ICT for sustainable development, blockchain, e-commerce, and e-government.