“Oh thanksss my loveee”: A Qualitative Analysis of Verbal Responses to Compliments in Text Messaging

When individuals receive compliments, they often want to accept them while maintaining modesty, creating a dilemma in how to respond. Studies on compliment responses have demonstrated various strategies that people employ in these situations. Given that text messages have become a large part of communication nowadays, it is interesting to determine which compliment response strategies are utilised in text messaging, as it has different response possibilities and limitations than face-to-face interaction, and has not been studied yet. Therefore, this study examines the responses to compliments (among acquaintances) via text messages. These responses are categorised to provide an overview of the strategies used in written communication. The results indicate that ‘accepting’ strategies were the most frequently employed, with ‘thanking’ being the most common response, generally accompanied by an emoji or affectionate words (e.g., “aww,” “my love,” “homie”). Even ‘deflecting’ strategies...Show moreWhen individuals receive compliments, they often want to accept them while maintaining modesty, creating a dilemma in how to respond. Studies on compliment responses have demonstrated various strategies that people employ in these situations. Given that text messages have become a large part of communication nowadays, it is interesting to determine which compliment response strategies are utilised in text messaging, as it has different response possibilities and limitations than face-to-face interaction, and has not been studied yet. Therefore, this study examines the responses to compliments (among acquaintances) via text messages. These responses are categorised to provide an overview of the strategies used in written communication. The results indicate that ‘accepting’ strategies were the most frequently employed, with ‘thanking’ being the most common response, generally accompanied by an emoji or affectionate words (e.g., “aww,” “my love,” “homie”). Even ‘deflecting’ strategies were predominantly only used in combination with an accepting strategy.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

“Oh thanksss my loveee”: A Qualitative Analysis of Verbal Responses to Compliments in Text Messaging