As reported in the Telegraph, The Journal of Experimental Psychology has found that the way we choose to end our emails might reveal a lot about us. Abbreviations, for example ‘BW’ instead of ’Best Wishes’, mean you come across as less sincere and are less likely to get a reply. In the days when letters were the only form of written communication, it was very clear when you should use ‘Yours sincerely’ or ‘Yours faithfully’, but nowadays there are no formal guidelines on how to end an email and there are a huge number of variants too – take a look at https://www.omnisend.com/blog/email-sign-offs/.
Dr Rachel Molitor is a psychologist specialising in human behaviour who has provided guidance on what different email endings say about you. For example, if you sign off with ‘Best wishes’, ‘Kind regards’, or ‘Warm regards’, you are likely to be agreeable and approachable, and keen to develop a positive rapport with colleagues; whereas if you sign off with your initials -or nothing at all – this can either cause offence because it shows the writer didn’t take the time to sign off properly, or the recipient might feel grateful that the busy and important sender found the time to send an email at all.
If you sign off more informally, such as with ‘Cheers’, ‘Catch you later’, ‘Take care’, ‘Hasta la vista’, etc, you need to make sure these are used in the right context, so that they only end emails sent to close colleagues or to family and friends.
