FYI: People don't like when you abbreviate texts

If you get a text that says “wyd”—translation: “what are you doing?”—there’s a good chance there’s one thing you’re crossing off that list: replying to the message.

According to a study published Nov. 14 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 99.3% of texters have used abbreviations that, in theory, could save precious typing time, like opting for “hru?” instead of asking someone how they are, or shortening “really” to “rly.” Study author David Fang, a doctoral student in behavioral marketing at Stanford University, wondered if this habit enhanced or diminished digital communication. He’s always made it a point to text in complete sentences, because he worried that otherwise, the people on the receiving end of his messages would think he was slacking off. But he wasn’t sure if his intuition was correct, so he decided to test it.

It turns out that Fang was on to something.

Abbreviations in text messages register as insincere to recipients, who then send shorter and fewer responses (if they bother to reply at all).

Michelle Drouin, a psychology professor at Purdue University Fort Wayne and author of Out of Touch: How to Survive an Intimacy Famine, isn’t surprised by the study’s results (which she was not involved with). The research didn’t examine people’s motivations for using abbreviations, but Drouin thinks that those who intentionally chop letters off their words are trying to “put off a vibe of, ‘I don't care,’” she says. “If they want to portray to the other person that they're not taking this very seriously, and [the conversation] feels casual to them, then these abbreviations might be well-suited.”

Read the full article on time.com.