According to a new study from online dating website Zoosk, your love of abbreviations and Internet slang may be what’s keeping you single.
The study surveyed over 9,000 singles and looked at how a person’s grammar and spelling influences our initial attractions, as well as the assumptions we make based on these interactions.
The study considered data variables across gender and age groups.
According to its findings, 48% of participants consider poor grammar a deal breaker, whereas 40% said that it is not an indicator of personality, but rather, “They just made some mistakes”.
Interestingly, 24% of participants associate bad grammar with poor education and lack of intelligence, and a further 27% consider it a trait of the lazy. Because really, if you can’t be bothered putting a full stop on the end of your sentence, what on earth will you be like with a toilet seat?
When divided by gender, the survey found that 60% of men claim that they wouldn’t let grammar get in the way of an in real life swipe right.
65% of women, however, said that if you don’t know your semicolons from your commas, you could forget about it.
Spelling mistakes were also found to be a turn off, with 72% of participants claiming that nothing says, “don’t call me” quite like blatant spelling errors. So if don’t know your you’re from your your, it’s probably time to be shown the door.
Ross knows what we’re talking about. Post continues after video…
When it comes to URL speak, the results were varied.
Using YOLO in your first message with a love interest is likely to lead to a decreased response rate of 47%. So while it’s true that you only live once, it’s not necessary to point it out every time you send a message, take a shot of tequila, or make a questionable life decision.
Thankfully, LOL fared better, with an increased message response rate of 25%. So the good news is you can continue to laugh out loud alone, and may just score yourself a date out of it.
The takeaway from all of this?
- Use proper grammar and spelling throughout.
- Don’t forget a full stop at the end of your message, and where possible, upgrade it to an exclamation point.
- LOL = good, YOLO = no. Just, no.
- Nudes? = Still a big, huge no. Save that for the second message.
* Featured Image via Gossip Girl.
Top Comments
I'd say intolerence for occasional poor spelling and grammar or the odd typo that isn't proof read may be the reason some are single.
It used to be a no-go, deal-breaker for me too, and when I let go of that, I got the greatest guy ever and he articulates himself very well, but occasionally doesn't spell perfectly.
He is aware of this, and quite self conscious about it, so make the effort to check more. If I was going to go hard arse in this, I'd be missing out on the love of my life. And our kids? Well he's a very smart guy and we'll both be reading a lot to them. When it comes to spelling and grammar, I've got this.
I know it sounds terrible but when I met my husband I dreaded seeing his first text message to me because I really liked him and I didn't want to have second thoughts if he sent a message with spelling mistakes or lame abbreviations. Fortunately his text message had proper spelling and grammar, despite the fact that he's not great atmospheretthose things. The point is he made the effort.