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Businesswoman texting cell phone outside conference room meeting

Source: Hero Images / Getty

There’s lots of room for misinterpretation when it comes to text messages.

Now a new study reveals the punctuation you use when texting can make all the difference in how your message is received.  According EurekAlert!

Researchers from Binghamton University had 126 participants read a series of exchanges that appeared as either text messages or handwritten notes. There were two versions of each experimental exchange: one in which the receiver’s response ended with a period and one in which it didn’t end with any punctuation. Participants rated text messages that ended with a period as less sincere than text messages without any punctuation. Study leader, associate dean at Binghamton University’s Harpur College, explains that since people can’t text many of the social cues they would use in face-to-face conversations, it makes sense that punctuation is used to “convey emotions and other social and pragmatic information.”

This is all too much.  Just call a person if you’re not sure of the tone.