Grammar matters. It allows us to clearly communicate with one another. But the whole framework doesn’t collapse if you make a small mistake. Or at least that’s what Reddit user AsideFearless8220 thought.
A few days ago, the woman submitted a story to the platform’s ‘Am I the [Jerk]?‘ community, asking them to weigh in on the argument between her and her husband.
It started when she texted him, asking to get a key ingredient for dinner, but didn’t notice a typo in the message, and he brought her a lesson instead.
This woman texted her husband to get “coconut mlik”
Image credits: Kelli McClintock (not the actual photo)
But apparently, he “couldn’t understand” that
Image credits: Siavash Ghanbari (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Louis Hansel (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Wikipedia (not the actual photo)
Image credits: AsideFearless8220
To many, a typo seems like a small unimportant detail, but some people actually find them really annoying
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
Interestingly, there’s an experiment that might help us understand the ordeal a little better. It was done by linguists Julie Boland and Robin Queen, and involved Americans from a wide range of backgrounds.
(Typos are mistakes that can be attributed to a slip of the finger, like “mlik” instead of “milk,” while grammos are errors involving knowledge of the rules of language – for example “there” for “their,” or “you’re” instead of “your.”)
In the study, researchers from the University of Michigan invited 83 participants to read emails that either contained typos, grammar errors, or no spelling mistakes at all. They were also asked to provide information about themselves and score the writers on various attributes, including perceived intelligence and friendliness.
The results revealed that introverts are more likely to get annoyed at both typos and grammos. Not only that, but they probably will not want to share their lives with you if you’re particularly error-prone as well. The researchers found that introverts were more likely than extraverts to rate people as poor potential housemates if their spelling or grammar was bad. There were other findings – agreeable people, perhaps unsurprisingly, were easygoing when it came to grammos. Conscientious people tended to see typos as a problem. Levels of neuroticism, somewhat surprisingly, didn’t predict any kind of penchant for pet peeves.
Image credits: Porapak Apichodilok (not the actual photo)
“We hadn’t quite anticipated that introversion would have the effect it did,” one of the researchers, Robin Queen, said. “I found myself asking: this is weird – why would it be the case that introverts care more?”
“My guess is that introverts have more sensitivity to variability,” she added. That could make variations from the norm like mistakes – which require extra processing that increases arousal – more irksome. “Maybe there’s something about extraverts that makes them less bothered by it. Because extraverts enjoy variability and engaging with people. They find that energizing. This could be an indirect manifestation of that.”
So maybe AsideFearless8220’s husband is just really, really introverted?
However, people unanimously said the husband is to blame here
Wow I usually don't bother reading these AITA posts but this one... Tell him your pet peeve is people who are too stupid to transpose letters AND who don't know how to text back when they're too confused to function as normal human beings.
Wow I usually don't bother reading these AITA posts but this one... Tell him your pet peeve is people who are too stupid to transpose letters AND who don't know how to text back when they're too confused to function as normal human beings.
47
52