Some people don’t really seem to notice grammatical mistakes, but they can be maddening to others. But it’s not just cringeworthy, new research reveals that bad grammar actually causes stress and a physical reaction to those who hear or read it.
A new study from the University of Birmingham in the U.K. finds when people are subjected to poor grammar, it can trigger a fight or flight response. Examples of bad grammar include mixing up tenses in a sentence, using a double negative and misusing a comma. Researchers have discovered that hearing or reading grammatical errors can send our bodies into stress mode, affecting the autonomic nervous system, a “network that controls the body’s unconscious processes.”
- For the study, researchers recorded participants’ heart rate variability (HRV) as they listened to speech samples that contained grammatical mistakes.
- HRV measures the time between heart beats and when we’re relaxed, it’s usually variable, but it becomes more regular when a person is stressed.
- The more errors a participant heard, the more regular their heartbeat became, a sign of stress.
- The physical stress from the grammatical mistakes seems to activate a fight or flight response in those who read or hear it.
Lead study author Dagmar Divjak explains that the fight or flight response is triggered during a threat or perceived danger and it turns out, that can even happen from bad grammar. The study concludes that “there is a cardiovascular response to grammatical violations.”
photo: Getty Images Source: University of Birmingham