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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."
The people I know who often point out typos and grammatical errors are high-functioning autists or suffer from Asperger's syndrome.
So why is this submission launching such a blatant attack on the victims of autism and Asperger's? Why does it label those who are suffering from a handicap as "jerks"?
They can't help it! They were born that way! It is part of their nature.
If somebody who was paralyzed from birth can drive faster in their wheelchair than you can walk with your legs, does that make them a "jerk"?! I don't think so!
Why do leftists claim that bullying and namecalling is wrong, but then they'll turn around and label autists and Asperger's sufferers as "jerks", which is perhaps the ultimate form of bullying and namecalling?
That's weird, I always thought of myself as "Type B". I point out typos to help educate. I'll be damned if I put ending punctuation inside parentheses though (example: suck it).
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
If these conclusions rest upon the Big Five personality test, then they rest upon unfounded, unscientific cultural assumptions. Big Five axiomatically assumes extraversion = healthy and introversion = pathological.
So, I call bullshit on this whole deal.
The problem with "typo" is that its definition is very elastic.
A typo is a typographical error. The term did indeed (more recently) creep into "typing error", which results from the so-called "fat-fingering" keys.
I often type "whioch" instead of "which". That's a typo. Writing "consistant" instead of "consistent" is not a typo if you ask me, because its root cause is lack of knowledge on how to properly write it, rather that a finger slipping kind of thing. Writing
I can handle typos. I am bothered by grammatical errors. And yes, I am less agreeable. If you want to know why, it's because my writing standards are high and I hold other people to the same standards I follow. Does that make me an asshole? Talk about how low society has sunk.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Dear people who type in all lowercase,
We are the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.
Sincerely,
Capital Letters.
Someone you trust is one of us.
Haven't you been paying attention?
Apparently the premise of the educational system is it's oppressive to hold people to a standard, and pointing out such things as atrocious grammar and spelling are detrimental to people's self esteem.
We're now defining "jerk" as "someone who insists on maintaining a standard of demonstrating you're not illiterate".
Why, it would be downright rude to point out that things like "mys well" is a reflection that you have no frigging idea of the words you wish to use and just make some vague sounds -- and that once you actually write them down you demonstrate you really don't have a working knowledge of the language.
For those of us who were traumatized by English teachers who could still threaten the use of the ruler to give you a smack ... the fact that the English language has devolved into the mumbling of illiterate teenagers who don't know the words they're trying to use is appalling. They have some random group of sounds they think means something, but they don't know any of the actual words.
I might not point out bad grammar and spelling, but that doesn't mean I don't notice that somehow someone has made it into a professional career while being largely illiterate. Which, unfortunately, makes me far more skeptical about the rest of what you have to say.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Just because you think you know something doesn't make it true. Science is not about skipping topics where people think they already know the answer.
I'm getting tired of all the anti-science on Slashdot.
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