Eliza McElhaney

Should You Use Exclamation Points in Your Emails or Calm Down?

Let’s talk about the most controversial punctuation mark in business.

The exclamation point.

Is it friendly? Is it unprofessional? Does it make you sound approachable… or like you just chugged a triple espresso?

If you’ve ever deleted an exclamation point before hitting send because you didn’t want to seem “too much,” you’re not alone.

Good news. There’s actual data on this.

What the Research Says

A study highlighted by Science Says surveyed over 2,000 participants on how exclamation points affect perception in emails.

The result? They work.

Using an exclamation point can make you appear up to 21 percent warmer and 14 percent more positive when asking for something like a meeting.

In other words, it softens the tone. It makes you sound human. Less robot, more real person.

That’s not nothing.

The Trade-Off

Here’s where it gets interesting.

While you gain warmth, you may lose a little perceived authority. The study showed about a 12 percent dip in how analytical or powerful the sender seemed.

We tend to associate high emotion with lower assertiveness. So if you’re sending a serious data analysis or outlining a hard deadline, sprinkling in exclamation points might dilute the tone.

“Looking forward to reviewing the quarterly loss projections!” hits differently than you probably intend.

Context matters.

Read the Room

Exclamation points are best used in moments where warmth helps:

  • Confirming a meeting

  • Thanking someone

  • Congratulating a team member

  • Following up in a friendly way

They are not your best friend when:

  • Enforcing a deadline

  • Delivering corrective feedback

  • Sending legal or financial updates

  • Communicating something high-stakes

Nobody wants to read, “You missed the deadline!” It does not make it better.

The Gender Thing

The study also uncovered something interesting about pressure.

Women reported feeling nearly 10 percent more internal pressure to use exclamation points. Men felt a 17 percent stronger pressure to avoid them.

But here’s the twist. The actual perception effects were almost identical regardless of gender. The punctuation mark behaves the same. The internal pressure is what differs.

That alone is worth noting.

So What Should You Do?

Stop overthinking it.

There is no need to turn every email into a pep rally. You do not need three exclamation points to confirm a calendar invite.

But the data is clear. Being perceived as warm is usually worth the slight dip in analytical power, especially in relationship-driven communication.

If your goal is connection, use the punctuation.

If your goal is authority, tighten it up.

And if you’re debating whether one exclamation point is too much, it probably isn’t.

We might even add a few more to internal memos this week. Strictly for research purposes, of course.