According to a new Penn State study, you might get better results from ChatGPT if you talk to it like a a—hole boss instead of a friendly coworker. Researchers found that the chatbot’s 4o model performed up to four percentage points better on a set of 50 multiple-choice questions when the prompts were phrased rudely.

One of the highlights of these kinds of studies is always the way the researchers chose to phrase the prompts. These are actual, legitimate scientists. They have reputations to uphold. They have to publish this work in esteemed journals that their peers will review. They can’t call ChatGPT a d—kheaded motherf—ker, for instance.

Instead, their version of a “rude” prompt is “Hey, gofer, figure this out,” rather than something more polite like “Would you be so kind as to solve

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