Overview
Language is an ever-changing blend of art and science, continuously adapted by new generations. This cycle has introduced a plethora of acronyms, abbreviations, and altered meanings, revolutionizing how we convey emotions and information while connecting with like-minded peers who understand the lingo. For those who do, “it’s lit, fam.”
But while some lay on the lols, others appear to be shook. Not everyone’s a fan of modern slang. It begs the question: does the use of slang affect how others perceive us? To put it another way, are we spitting straight fire? Or low-key taking an “L” when we use the lol?
To tackle this mystery, we embarked on an experiment to understand how slang impacts others' perceptions of us, both in texts and in emails. The results were eye-opening.
Language is an ever-changing blend of art and science, continuously adapted by new generations. This cycle has introduced a plethora of acronyms, abbreviations, and altered meanings, revolutionizing how we convey emotions and information while connecting with like-minded peers who understand the lingo. For those who do, “it’s lit, fam.”
But while some lay on the lols, others appear to be shook. Not everyone’s a fan of modern slang. It begs the question: does the use of slang affect how others perceive us? To put it another way, are we spitting straight fire? Or low-key taking an “L” when we use the lol?
To tackle this mystery, we embarked on an experiment to understand how slang impacts others' perceptions of us, both in texts and in emails. The results were eye-opening.
The Experiment
We recruited 400 participants from Amazon MTurk for a survey experiment involving an email or text message from a hypothetical friend at work, Casey. Half of these participants received a message containing slang. The other half received the same message, only with proper grammar (i.e., no slang).
To make the study a randomized controlled trial, we randomly assigned which message participants saw. Additionally, we randomized whether the message was an email or text. This allowed us to test whether the medium of communication influences readers’ perceptions of a slang user.
The messages that participants read are illustrated below. The text was identical for both email and text message conditions; only the visual surrounding the text changed, so as to simulate realism.
After reading the message, participants evaluated Casey's perceived attributes on a 1-7 scale, answering the question, "To what extent do you think each of the following words describe Casey? (1 = Not at all; 7 = Extremely)."
The five words included the following:
The five words included the following:
- Smart
- Nice
- Likable
- Professional
- Trustworthy
Results
The use of slang in both text and email scenarios had a negative effect on Casey's image. Participants perceived the slang-using Casey to be 5.8% less nice, 18.2% less smart, 10.0% less likable, 12.2% less trustworthy, and a staggering 28.0% less professional (p < 0.001).
The medium of communication (email vs. text) had limited influence on perceptions of slang use. Despite our suspicions that slang would be more acceptable in text messages, we found no significant changes in the results when the message was conveyed via email or text message. The text message was viewed as 10% more professional overall than email, irrespective of slang use, but this may have been due to the nature of the message; asking to catch up about each others' vacations may seem less professional than the typical email, but on par for the typical text message.
Finally, neither gender nor age influenced any of the results.
Conclusion
Well, it looks like the world is still adjusting to the lexicon of the new generation. If your goal is to project intelligence or professionalism, consider forgoing the slang and opting for a more formal tone in your communications.
However, this doesn't imply that slang should be avoided altogether. Language, like art, evolves and may find appreciation later or with particular groups. Eventually, new-age slang will fall out of vogue and find itself replaced by an even more eclectic set of words. It’s alright to embrace your linguistic flair. Just be mindful of the context if you wish to curate a professional image.
Methods Note
We used ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses to identify significant differences in perceptions of how nice, smart, likable, professional, and trustworthy Casey seemed between the slang and no-slang conditions. A p-value less than 0.05 indicated statistical significance. To assess whether differences varied across specific groups (e.g., men vs. women), we employed OLS regression analyses with interaction terms. The survey materials and data for this experiment are available upon request.