Reducing your texts to a flurry of abbreviations can have unintended consequences, according to researchers who found that wordless exchanges are more likely to convey “idrc” than “ily.”
Psychologists analyzed messages from more than 5,000 people across eight studies and found that those who used abbreviations were perceived as less sincere and less likely to receive reactions as a result.
Abbreviations have increased dramatically in the age of digital messaging, becoming the default for quick communication in tight-knit groups, but the findings suggest that a quick “hru?” may not seem as sincere as taking the time to spell out, “How are you?”
“While abbreviations can save time and effort, our research suggests that they can also hinder effective communication and negatively affect interpersonal perceptions,” the authors write in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
David Fang at Stanford University and colleagues at the University of Toronto conducted the studies to examine the impact of abbreviations in different messaging scenarios. They started by asking people to rate the sincerity of messages with and without abbreviations and how likely they were to respond. Next, they analyzed messages on the Discord social messaging platform, during an online speed-dating experiment, and from the dating app, Tinder.
People who used abbreviations tended to receive fewer responses than those who spelled out words, and the responses were typically shorter, the studies found. While younger people used more abbreviations, the negative effect remained, the researchers say.
“Abbreviations make senders seem less sincere and receivers less likely to write back,” the authors write. “These negative effects arise because abbreviations indicate a lower level of effort on the part of the sender.”
Since the world’s first text message in December 1992, broadcasters developed a more efficient language with full words and phrases dropped in favor of the minimum of letters. Half-hearted agreement becomes idrc, because “I don’t really care”. And why bother writing “I love you” when ily will?
The researchers delved into the issue to understand whether abbreviations, intended to convey exactly the same meaning as the full word, had nuanced effects on recipients. One school of thought is that abbreviations are more relaxed and informal, promoting a close relationship between those messages. Another believes that abbreviations reveal a lack of effort and interest in the person.
In one of the experiments, people who received messages full of abbreviations responded with shorter messages than otherwise, raising the prospect of a feedback loop that crunches text even further. “Our findings echo literature indicating that people value conversational quality, and prefer messages that convey thoughtfulness and personal connection,” the authors write.
Despite the researchers drawing on real-world data for some of their work, other psychologists have questioned whether abbreviations are really that problematic.
Professor Linda Kaye, a psychologist at Edge Hill University, said: “It is important to recognize that in real-world, text-based messaging interactions, receivers are likely to have much more context and familiarity with the sender and therefore perceptions based be on a much richer set of information. It may be that these perceptions are less prominent or impactful in a real-world interaction.”
Dr Christopher Hand, a psychologist at the University of Glasgow, agreed. “A lot depends on the personal relationship between sender and receiver, and whether you are familiar with those people who use abbreviations or not,” he said. “It will also depend on the context: are they in a hurry? Do they use these abbreviations to avoid using an entire taboo word?”
“People are likely to choose their communication styles carefully, depending on who they’re talking to, why they’re talking to them, and whether it’s personal, professional, romantic, aggressive, and so on,” Hand added. “Modern technology goes beyond short text communication: voice features in voice notes, emojis, gifs, memes, and so on are likely to be more impactful than plain text.”
