E-mail is considered to be the most common form of communication nowadays. But it is the most deceptive kind in the workplace, a new study has revealed.
And, what's surprising is that researchers have found people actually feel justified when lying using e-mail.
According to lead researcher Liuba Belkin of Lehigh University, "There is a growing concern in the workplace over e-mail communications, and it comes down to trust.
"You're not afforded the luxury of seeing non-verbal and behavioural cues over e-mail. And, in an organisational context, that leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation and as we saw in our study, intentional deception."
In their study, the researchers handed 48 MBA students $89 to divide between themselves and another party who only knew the dollar amount fell somewhere between $5 and 100.
There was one pre-condition -- the other party had to accept whatever offer was made to them.
Using either e-mail or pen-and-paper communications, the students reported the size of the pot, truthful or not, and how much the other party would get.
Students using e-mail lied about the amount of money to be divided over 92 per cent of the time while less then 64 per cent lied about the pot size in pen and paper. The rate of lying was 50 per cent greater between the two groups.
E-mailers also said they felt more justified in awarding the other party just $29 out of a total pot of about $56. Pen-and-paper students were a little friendlier, however; on average, they passed along almost $34 out of a misrepresented pot of $67, the ScienceDaily reported.
"These findings are consistent with our other work that shows e-mail communication decreases the amount of trust and cooperation we see in professional group work, as opposed to pen and paper," said co-researcher Terri Kurtzberg.
