E-mail Liars On The Lose

By Suparna Chakaraborthy

Thursday, April 1, 2010, 14:08

The advent of e-mail, has allowed people to lie. A recent study has revealed that people are more likely to tell lies in an email than when they use a hand-written letter as a means of communication.

According to a team of researchers email puts a greater “psychological distance" between liar and victim.

The researchers say, “e-mail is generally viewed as less permanent and less personal than other forms of communication.This may explain why individuals typing on a computer may be more likely to feel released from strict moral guidelines than those using pen and paper."

This conclusion has been reached after a experiment done on 48 students. They were told that they have an allocated money to share with a partner who was someone they did not know and would not meet. The sum was told to be 89 US dollars.

The students were also told that their respective partners know the sum was between five and 100 dollars and would never find out the real amount.

Then each one had to decide how much to share, and inform their partner. The means of communication was e-mail or letter.

92 per cent of those who used email lied, compared with 63 per cent of letter writers.Thus proving that, people using e-mail decided to lie.

This is a unpleasant finding, as now the whole economy communicates through e-mail. This study has surely lighted the fire of doubt.