Naturally, it feels like we should be polite to AI. If it does eventually take over, we want to be in its good books, right?

Well, a recent study from Pennsylvania State University claims the opposite is true, at least for yielding better results with your prompts. Researchers there tested how different tones, ranging from 'Very Polite' to 'Very Rude,' affected ChatGPT‑4o’s accuracy on 50 multiple‑choice questions across math, science and history.

What did the study find?

The researchers designed 50 questions then rewrote each one in five tones: Very Polite (e.g., “Would you be so kind…”), Polite (“Please answer…”), Neutral (just the question), Rude (“If you’re not clueless…”), and Very Rude (“Hey gofer, figure this out”).

The researchers tested five tones: Very polite, polite, neutral

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