Does Email Make You Lie More?
from the just-a-little-bit dept
Does a more impersonal means of communication make it easier to... stretch the truth? Apparently, a new study found that people tend to lie more in email when compared to a written note (paper?!? pens?!?). The study involved people being given a pool of money and asked to divide it with someone else, who they could communicate with either via email or via written note. While pretty much everyone lied about the total amount of money, those who communicated over email lied by even bigger amounts. The writeup doesn't really suggest why this is, but it makes you wonder what factors could be involved. People often talk about how sitting at a keyboard can make people "mean," but they usually attribute it to the anonymity factor. However, could the "coldness" of typed words feel less personal as well?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Re:
So yes, be careful of what you say, otherwise, the receiving side may actually believe http://www.PenIsland.net truly sells something more interesting than pens.
But what would you know if you never visited yourself? After all, it is Pen Island, you sicko.
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Re:
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Bad title
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"All the experimentees lied about how much money they had been given (no great surprise, as they were all MBA students...)"
Note to self: Never hire an MBA, they are ALL liars.
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Re: MBA???
That is quite interesting. Why should we believe YOU? And how did MBA education contributed to their behavior? Did you get or try to get one of those qualifications?
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Weird
Either way, MBAs suck.
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Re: Weird
The study sample population is apparently dishonest, and typing just lets them be dishonest faster.
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gotcha!
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Re: gotcha!
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I have always told my employees if you don't want something read or repeated don't put it in an e-mail. A part time employee explained away her no-show/no call absense with an e-mail describing her spending three days at the hospital bedside of her comatose daughter who had fallen during a session of playing "pyramid" at her church youth group.This following a medevac helicopter ride. Niether was difficult to disprove. The State Labor Board denied her wrongful dismissal claim based on that e-mail.
Are you saying that she was in a helicopter ride with her daughter that was in a coma after the accident? Or just joyriding? This example confuses me.
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Let Me Tell You
Oh, you mean I have to say it on television - I can't email it?
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It's always been this way
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NO!
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Re: NO!
What do you think about the ZunePhone. Really, now. Is this going to be a break through device or is it going to be based on a SUCK spec HTC design?
Help me out here...
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Lying
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Should investigate whether affinity for other party moderates this relationship.
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