Chantal, this is definitely a fascinating study, especially as it may relate to online dating, job searches, etc. But perhaps one way to evolve the study would be to focus entirely on portrait oriented mobile displays. The constraint of the Facebook chat view reminds me of a mobile screen’s aspect ratio to begin with, so what if the control was an email app on the phone too?

Furthermore, maybe there are different perceptions even within the same app, such as the main Messages app on a phone. What if someone sent multiple messages vs all one message but with line breaks? I’d love to see this study go further.