When reading emails, do you become the “grammar police? This behavior is partly the result of personality traits that influence how people respond to written errors, according to university linguistics experts. Extroverts tend to overlook typos and grammatical errors that cause introverts to judge the person who makes such mistakes negatively. This study examined the social judgments readers make about the writers.
For the study, 83 participants were asked to read email responses to an ad for a roommate that either contained no errors or contained typos or grammar errors. They rated the authors in terms of perceived intelligence, friendliness, and other characteristics, as well as reported information about themselves. At the end of the experiment, participants were asked if they had noticed any grammatical errors in the responses. If they answered yes, they indicated how many mistakes bothered them.
As expected, participants who reported grammar at the beginning were more likely to report grammatical errors at the end.
Less consenting people were also more prone to grammatical errors, while more conscientious and less open people were prone to typos, the researchers said.
