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Study Says People Who Continually Point Out Typos Are 'Jerks'
HughPickens.com writes: Sophie Kleeman, writes at Gizmodo that according to a study at the University of Michigan people who are more sensitive to written typos and grammatical errors are indeed the kinds of 'Type A assholes' everyone already suspects them to be. Researchers gathered 83 people and had them read emails that either contained typos ("mkae" or "abuot"), grammar errors (to/too, it's/its or your/you're), or no spelling mistakes at all. Participants were asked at the end of the experiment whether or not they'd spotted any grammatical errors or typos in the emails, and, if so, how much it had bothered them. The researchers then asked the participants to complete a Big Five personality assessment -- which rates where they are on a scale of openness, agreeableness, extraversion/introversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness -- as well as answer questions about their age, background, and attitude towards language. People who tested as being more conscientious but less open were more sensitive to typos, while those with less agreeable personalities got more upset by grammatical errors. "Less agreeable participants showed more sensitivity to 'grammos' than participants high in agreeability," the researchers said, "perhaps because less agreeable people are less tolerant of deviations from convention."
My family was killed by a missing comma, you insensitive clod!
Most people rarely consider themselves to be assholes, even when the people around them tell them otherwise.
I suspect this has to do with personalities that tend to favor order, logic, and organization, something that's obviously beneficial to programming or engineering, but could be a hindrance when dealing with messy and unpredictable human interpersonal relationships. As a programmer myself, seeing typos and grammatical errors tends to trigger something in my brain that screams "that's not correct - it needs fixing!" in the same way a crookedly hung painting will irritate people who strive to create a sense of order in their environment.
Of course, general social awareness prevents me from reacting too negatively to things like simple typos, but there are some people who simply don't have those sort of brain-to-mouth social filters. If you've never worked with someone like that, you know how awkward or unpleasant it can be unless you've got an *extremely* tolerant personality - which I'd admit I probably don't have.
I'd imagine our brains have evolved to recognize patterns and draw our attention to things that break those patterns, because in nature such a thing has a high probability of being either be interesting or dangerous. I think this could theoretically explain why bugs on streaming videos (logos overlaid in the corner of the video screen) tend to bother me more than most people - my brain recognizes it as something "different" and so it constantly draws my attention away from the content of the video.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
The study found that while conscientious people noticed, less agreeable people (assholes) were bothered by typos. Quoting the fine summary:
Participants were asked at the end of the experiment whether or not they'd spotted any grammatical errors or typos in the emails, and, if so, how much it had bothered them. ...
People who tested as being more conscientious but less open were more sensitive to typos, while those with less agreeable personalities got more upset by grammatical errors.
noun, plural ironies.
1. the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend.
2. Literature. A technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated. (especially in contemporary writing) a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., especially as a means of indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion.
3. Socratic irony.
4. dramatic irony.
5. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.
6. the incongruity of this.
7. an objectively sardonic style of speech or writing.
As a person who works at a university would already be well versed in proper grammar given the ample amounts of papers that they have to write and would also be well versed in the annoyances of people dinging them for a misplaced comma, one would expect that a study done by people at a university on the annoyances of people grammar checking them would be ironic. The use of ironic in that sense could easily fit definitions 2, 3, 5, or 6.
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