A recent study from University of Michigan suggests that the militant grammarians angered by rogue apostrophes and missing commas are basically, er, jerks.
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Linguists from the university published a study arguing that so-called “grammar Nazis” are usually disagreeable and introverted by nature.
The test required volunteers to pick a housemate based on emails sent by dummy applicants, with some messages written immaculately and others full of typos and “grammos”.
The grammar nazis judged (and rejected) potential housemates based on their errors, assuming the writer was uneducated, while more relaxed people assumed the writer was in a rush.
Expecting to find similarities in the age, sex and education of those tested, professors Julie Boland and Robin Queen found that “more extroverted people were likely to overlook written errors.”
“Less open” volunteers were highly sensitive to errors in text, while “conscientious” people could cope with rushed spelling and even blatantly bad English.
So the game’s up, nitpickers — time to chill out and get on with you’re* life.
*Just kidding.