Sorry about our scandalous disregard of that nonrestrictive clause, please don’t hurt us

A knew study is floating around proves once an for all what we all presumed too be tru.

Does that horribly incorrect sentence annoy you? Maybe just a little? Well, if so, you might be a huge asshole … but you probably already knew that.

A recent report has determined that the people who are most likely to make note of another person’s grammatical mistakes are actually fairly difficult human beings. The study, conducted by academics at the University of Michigan, is titled: If You’re House Is Still Available, Send Me an Email: Personality Influences Reactions to Written Errors in Email Messages.

The researchers determined that people who were most likely to become irritated by grammar errors in others are themselves lacking in personal “agreeability.” As far as personality psychology is concerned, “agreeability” is a part of the so called “Big Five” personality traits (the other four are extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness and neuroticism). “Agreeability” is specifically defined as “trusting, generous, sympathetic, cooperative, not aggressive or cold.” All of which seem like pretty great traits to have. Grammar nazis? They’ve got none of those…

The authors of the study note that “peever reactions to non-standard grammar are often ascribed especially to curmudgeonly personalities.”

To assess this claim, participants were first given a general personality assessment. Then, they were asked to “imagine that they were college students looking for a housemate, and to read a set of test “emails” from candidates.” Within the emails, there were various typos and/or grammatical errors to measure how the test subjects would react and evaluate these hypothetical roommates.

An example of the typo-laden email reads like this:

“Hey! My name is Pat and I’m interested in sharing a house with other students who are serious about there schoolwork but who also know how to relax and have fun. I like to play tennis and love old school rap. If your someone who likes that kind of thing too, maybe we would good housemates.”

The perpetually on-edge skinwalkers who lacked agreeability responded negatively to the completely inconsequential grammatical errors and chose to reject a roommate situation with the fictional email author.

… Ugh. For Pete’s sake, it’s an email on a Craigslist-like site not a Tolstoy excerpt …

Additionally, individuals who tested higher for introverted tendencies had negative reactions to both the grammatical errors and typos. So … just to further pinpoint this profile (beyond sheer disagreeability aspect) we’re talking about the smirking introvert in the room alone with only their judging thoughts waiting for the opportunity to pounce irrationally at the misuse of circumstantial irony or the subjunctive mood during the Eastbound and Down watch-party.

Oh, joy. Y R they hear again?