We’re all guilty of making a grammar error here and there, but some people are more forgiving of the slip-up than others. A new study took a look on what makes people more likely to have a judgmental view of grammar errors than others, revealing some interesting findings.

The study, conducted by University of Michigan professor Julie Boland, recruited 83 participants to " read email responses to an ad for a housemate that either contained no errors or had been altered to include either typos, such as mkae (make) or abuot (about), or grammar errors, such as to/too, it's/its or your/you're. They rated the email writers in terms of perceived intelligence, friendliness and other attributes, as well as provided information about themselves,” according to a press release.

In addition to reading the e-mails, participants were given the Big Five Personality Test in order to assess their respective five broad personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, according to the MinnPost.com.

"This is the first study to show that the personality traits of listeners/readers have an effect on the interpretation of language,” said Boland.

Participants who had the most problems with grammatical errors were not necessarily more educated or English majors- instead, they were people with introverted personalities that also scored on the lower end of agreeableness.

While the small study leaves a lot of room for error, its existence is much appreciated for anyone looking to fend off the entitled grammar police during the next skirmish.

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Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

4/1/2016