Its purpose is to inject strong emotion into written text and is increasingly used on social media to show enthusiasm, excitement and friendliness.
Now research suggests that women use exclamation marks more than men – who believe the punctuation to be feminine and emotional.
Users of exclamation marks were also seen as being warmer, more enthusiastic and emotional but low in power and analytical thinking, the study found.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University studied 1,100 men and women to evaluate how they use exclamation marks in emails, text messages and group chats, and the reasons for their use.
In one of five experiments, 61 per cent of people believed the writer was female when the sender used exclamation marks, compared to 21 per cent who did not think it was a woman. A second test found that men were around 25 per cent less likely to use exclamation marks, while another found that women were 30 per cent more likely than men to use them in texts.
