4 days ago
OMG! Exclamation marks are for women! At least according to men, who see them as 'feminine' and 'emotional'!
Its purpose is to inject strong emotion into written text and is increasingly used on social media to show enthusiasm, excitement and friendliness.
Now research suggests that women use exclamation marks more than men – who believe the punctuation to be feminine and emotional.
Users of exclamation marks were also seen as being warmer, more enthusiastic and emotional but low in power and analytical thinking, the study found.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University studied 1,100 men and women to evaluate how they use exclamation marks in emails, text messages and group chats, and the reasons for their use.
In one of five experiments, 61 per cent of people believed the writer was female when the sender used exclamation marks, compared to 21 per cent who did not think it was a woman. A second test found that men were around 25 per cent less likely to use exclamation marks, while another found that women were 30 per cent more likely than men to use them in texts.
Senders who used exclamation marks were seen as around 20 per cent warmer than those who did not.
The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, said: 'Women may use exclamation points more than men because they more strongly believe it is expected of them, and men may hold back because they believe such behaviour is seen as feminine.'
It added: 'Intriguingly, women thought more strongly than men that exclamations would improve general impressions and perceived warmth. This may be because women perceive stronger backlash against them for being perceived as 'cold' if they do not use exclamations.'
Researchers also suggest that 84 per cent of women worried about whether or not they should use exclamation marks.
'Women reported being more conscious than men of their use of exclamation points, often feeling they used too many exclamations and worrying about how others perceive this usage.
'This suggests that balancing the use of exclamation points to meet society's expectations of warmth, while avoiding the reduction of other perceptions, is particularly challenging for women,' they said.
Researchers believe their findings show that in situations where a signal of warmth is important, people should use more exclamation points and where a projection of power is important, people should limit such usage.
Exclamation marks were invented by 14th-century scholar Alpoleio da Urbisaglia but it took 50 years for scholar Coluccio Salutati to use them in writing.
