Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

Face to face communication uses multi-modal behavioral cues (e.g., tone of voice and facial expression) that are available to facilitate accurate interpretation of intentions. However, when conversations are computer-mediated (e.g., texting), the use of these cues become limited. With this multi-modal behavioral cue limitation, the likelihood of a miscommunication increases. With a look at recent research, there has been an indication that vocal tone, through text, may be expressed through the use of punctuation (e.g., “Sure.” = rude or insincere; Gunraj et al., 2016. It is currently less well known how punctuation impacts the receiver's emotional experience with a "rude" texter. Therefore, we evaluated how receivers of emotionally valenced texts, would respond. To test this, we used behavioral and psycho-linguistic methods to evaluate the effect of emotional contagion on participants. We were specifically interested to see if receivers matched or aligned their responses to match the emotional valence of a positive or negative sender of a text. Specifically, if a receiver was sent a rude text, would she then respond rudely? What is interesting, is that receivers were more likely to respond positively over all -- regardless of the texter valence. Indicating the receiver attempted to decrease social distance by choosing a divergent emotional response - but only when the texter was perceived as rude.