The online world can be a vicious one at the best of times, with alias identities allowing people to claim just about anything. New research conducted at Leheigh, Rutgers and DePaul Universities in the US, show people are 50% more likely to lie through digital communication. Students were given a pot of money, and instructed to share their amount with others via email or letter. All participants lied to their research buddies, but those that negotiated through the net shared far less than those who used written communication.
Rutgers University’s Terri Kurtzberg gave his take on the findings:
E-mail communication decreases the amount of trust and cooperation we see in professional group-work, and increases the negativity in performance evaluations, all as opposed to pen-and-paper systems.
People seem to feel more justified in acting in self-serving ways when typing as opposed to writing.
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