http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/03/communicating-persuasively-email-or.php
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Communicating Persuasively: Email or Face-to-Face?
Face to Face
Our intuitive understanding is that face-to-face communication is the
most persuasive. In reality, of course, it's not always possible to
meet in person, so email wins out. How, then, do people react to
persuasion attempts over email? Persuasion research has uncovered
fascinating effects: that men seem more responsive to email because
it bypasses their competitive tendencies (Guadagno & Cialdini, 2002).
Women, however, may respond better in face-to-face encounters because
they are more 'relationship-minded'. But is this finding just a
gender stereotype?
Gender stereotypes
Guadagno and Cialdini explain their results in terms of expectations
about social roles. Cultural stereotypes have it that men are
task-oriented whereas women are relationship-oriented. So, when put
in a situation where relationships were important i.e. face-to-face,
women tend to follow the cultural stereotype. Similarly, as men are
often viewed as more competitive, when they face each other they tend
to be more competitive and so less open to persuasion.
Practically, what this research is suggesting is that email could
provide a way of side-stepping men's competitive tendencies. But,
this research doesn't consider the effects of pre-existing
relationships. After all, we react differently to friends than strangers.
In an upcoming article, however, to be published in the journal
'Computers and Human Behaviour', Guadagno and Cialdini (2007) examine
the effect of relationships. The problem for researchers is how to
manipulate people's relationships experimentally to effectively test
the differences. Guadagno and Cialdini use the concept of 'oneness'.
Oneness
Oneness refers to the idea of an interconnected identity. The closer
two people feel, the more helping the other person is like helping
themselves. So oneness can promote altruistic behaviour. Oneness can
also be seen in terms of the classic in-group out-group dichotomy in
social psychology. People show a positive bias towards other people
who are in the same notional group as themselves: e.g. work colleagues.
Oneness was very simply manipulated in Guadagno and Cialdini's study
by encouraging strangers to view each other in one of two ways. In
the first manipulation two strangers were shown fictional results of
a questionnaire they had completed which showed they had identical
personalities. In the second, the fictional results showed they had
completely different personalities. In this way, the first groups
'oneness' was encouraged, while in the second it was discouraged.
Then, as had been done in the previous study, participants attempted
to persuade each other.
Results
The researchers found that when there were low levels of oneness
between men, email was a more effective way to communicate.
Conversely, for women, higher levels of oneness made face-to-face
encounters significantly more persuasive.
How can these results be explained? Women may not generally be easily
persuaded over email because there is less opportunity to form
relationships from which attitude changes can be built. Men, however,
tend to be less competitive over email and are better able to
concentrate on arguments presented, rather than being distracted by
seeing the other man as a threat.
Male-female interaction
Bear in mind that this study is ironing out the spectrum of
differences amongst both men and women. In other words, clearly not
all women are always relationship-focussed and not all men are always
task-focussed. It seems an obvious point but it's a mistake often
made in mainstream media presentation of psychology research.
Additionally, one of the drawbacks of the study was that it only
concentrated on same-sex communication. Although, I would suggest
it's better not to think of this study in terms of men and women but
in terms of individual relationships.
So, if you want to persuade someone with whom you have a competitive
relationship - whatever your and their gender - email might be a
better choice. On the other hand, if your persuasion attempt is aimed
at someone with whom you have a more cooperative relationship,
face-to-face could be a better choice. Unfortunately, it isn't always
possible to see someone face-to-face, so it's very useful to be aware
of the processes operating in both face-to-face and online interactions.
--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
