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Lying Is More Common When We Email
An anonymous reader writes "A new study by University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers finds that using computers for instant messaging and e-mail increases lying compared to face-to-face conversations, and that e-mail messages are most likely to contain lies. At its heart, the difference is about deindividualization, where as people grow psychologically and physically further from the person they're communicating with, the likelihood of lying goes up."
I always tell the truth when post in Slashdot. Especially when I check mark the anonymous coward option. Computers, IM, email etc encourage lying. bah! humbug.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Haven't we already learned this from such "discussion mediums" as the Slashdot comment section? Its easier to lie when you don't have to cover your body language, quivers in voice or other "give aways".
I was just getting out of bed after a 9 hour orgy with my harem. I showed them this story on my iPad 4 and they think it's all BS.
At least, thats what my girlfriend says.
is it true, do people lie? Over email? To other people?
we need to look into this, it's going to ruin the economy, especially if these liars get into politics and big business!
You can't handle the truth.
When we need to lie, we pick up the phone. Emails are logged and archived.
I'm mostly kidding. I'm in IT. I do not need to lie. The sales staff on the other hand seems to make a living over promising things to clients.
Of course... it easy to get away lying via e-mail. The terrible actors of the world needn't know that their facial expressions or eye directions won't reveal their lie.
I never lie though- find it counterproductive. When you've got 18inches who needs to lie?
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Uncomfortable and inconvenient truths, more common by anonymous?
Some webpages promote anonymous posts, as they tend to get better discussions. Whistleblowers!
e-mail is normally attached to your name, so lying is better than telling the truth
People learn quickly around me not do to that. I *KEEP* my emails... I *WILL* bring them back up...
I lie much more in face to face conversations, like when I'm in a social situation such as my work, as I am obligated to talk to every idiot that shows up, and prefer not to let them know that I want to avoid them.
With e-mails however, I am much more selective who I talk to, usually I only talk to people I want to talk to and therefore I'm more often sincere in my e-mails.
article says they determine it by analysing conversations but it does not tell much. If it is the experimenter's chat logs then he has a bias and he could subconsciously lie more if that is his hypothesis. If it is other lying then how is it determined that they are lying? also, easier to know exact details of conversation if it is written (unless it is recorded word for word).
imho the study as it is presented does not say much... though there is nothing wrong with the hypothesis that people would lie more because it is tougher to come up with a lie live. That said, we all learn to lie very quickly... and most become quite good at it to a point it's not anymore really an issue to lie live for most.
Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that
They did a study not long ago demonstrating that anonymity encourages anti-social behavior, which also wasn't surprising.
Besides, a large component of lying (in my 'based on nothing but my own experiences' opinion) seems to be the odds of getting caught in said lie. When you're talking to someone face to face, there's a lot of physical clues that aren't present in an email, thus encouraging a person to lie.
Christopher Walken said it best, though. I admit that may not have as much to do with the topic at hand, I just fucking love that scene...
All those emails about Global Warming... see?
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
IT is not somehow morally superior to anything else, people lie there as well as in anything else.
You can't handle the truth.
Why would anyone be more inclined to lie when it will be documented? You lie when you have plausible deniability, or am I putting to much thought into this?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Either the research is flawed, or the people they studied are going to fail miserably in the "real world".
I find myself stretching the truth, or dodging accurate answers, when speaking in person far more often than I do in text. With text there is a document recorded for all time which can be referenced at any time. If it's not correct it's going to destroy you. If you say something untrue it's possible to wiggle out by claiming you were misunderstood or misheard.
Typically there is more time to build accurate and honest replies in text than there is in verbal communication. When you're speaking with someone they expect the reply RIGHT THEN, so you make some shit up to cover your ass. If you have more time you can formulate a true(er) response, or build truth prior to making your reply.
Spoken:
"Hey babe, did you take out the trash?"
"Uh, yep."
The hell you did. And now you have to get the trash out before she finds out.
Text:
"Hey babe, did you take out the trash?"
Take out the trash.
"Yep. At the curb."
No deceit. Just delay of truth due to available features of the means of communication.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
I've found myself more open and honest in email, I think partly because I'm typing at the computer and not actually in the presence of the person - it's more like I'm talking to myself.
even IM chats are better.
why? they're edited less, more of stream of thought. emails are one stream of thought written and then edited multiple times.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Dear Sir,
Good day and compliments. This letter will definitely come to you as a huge surprise, but I implore you to take the time to go through it carefully as the decision you make will go off a long way to determine the future and continued existence of the entire members of my family.
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dr. (Mrs.) Mariam Abacha, the wife of the late head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces of the federal republic of Nigeria who died on the 8th of June 1998.
My ordeal started immediately after my husband's death on the morning of 8th June 1998, and the subsequent take over of government by the last administration. The present democratic government is determined to portray all the good work of my late husband in a bad light and have gone as far as confiscating all my late husband's assets, properties, freezing our accounts both within and outside Nigeria. As I am writing this letter to you, my son Mohammed Abacha is undergoing questioning with the government. All these measures taken by past/present government is just to gain international recognition.
I and the entire members of my family have been held incommunicado since the death of my husband, hence I seek your indulgence to assist us in securing these funds. We are not allowed to see or discuss with anybody. Few occasions I have tired traveling abroad through alternative means all failed.
It is in view of this I have mandated DR GALADIMA HASSAN, who has been assisting the family to run around on so many issues to act on behalf of the family concerning the substance of this letter. He has the full power of attorney to execute this transaction with you.
My late husband had/has Eighty Million USD ($80,000,000.00) specially preserved and well packed in trunk boxes of which only my husband and I knew about. It is packed in such a way to forestall just anybody having access to it. It is this sum that I seek your assistance to get out of Nigeria as soon as possible before the present civilian government finds out about it and confiscate it just like they have done to all our assets.
I implore you to please give consideration to my predicament and help a widow in need.
May Allah show you mercy as you do so?
Your faithfully,
Dr (Mrs.) Mariam Abacha (M.O.N)
N/B: Please contact Dr Galadima Hassan on this e-mail address for further briefing and modalities
In the absence of physical tells, we tend to lie more? This is a revelation? I think I'm applying for a grant to find out why you get wet in the rain.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Is it because it's an e-mail that they lie more or because it's a constructed piece of written media?
Did they find the same results in normal letters/mail vs oral/IM communication?
I suspect it's all because lying is a lot easier to do when you can edit and rewrite what you're saying before you've actually said it.
It was an extremely sales oriented company in a fairly shifty industry so, we just went with 100% lies on all communications (email/face to face/phone and customer facing or internal). Therefore, it wasn't more in this case.
e-mail messages are most likely to contain lies
As in email messages have a greater than 50% chance of containing a lie, or email messages seem to have more lies than texting or face-to-face conversation?
and that e-mail messages are most likely to contain lies.
Really? Can you quantify 'most'? P > 0.5?
I'm not disagreeing with the subject line premise (more common). I just think the summary exaggerates. Or perhaps they are just lying to us.
Its also possible that the statistics are biased by the number of Nigerian investment scheme offers and penis enhancement product ads piling up in most in boxes.
Have gnu, will travel.
[eom]
I was taught in a communications course that over 90% of the "information" in a conversation is transmitted visually. We read each others' faces and body language.
My hobby is leading a rock band. I have noticed that people really don't hear as much of what we're doing as we think we are -- they are watching how we act on stage. This became apparent when we did a multi-band show one time and though the other bands were musically just as good as we were, we got a rousing ovation because my guitarist and I were jumping around on stage and cracking jokes. And the observations from the audience overwhelmingly confirmed -- it was how we behaved that sold our performance. We were good, we knew it, and we showed it.
So when you remove that element, that body language that will tell most people if you actually buy the bullshit you're selling, it frees you to sell far more bullshit.
Sociopaths and social manipulators don't even understand that what they're doing is wrong which is why one of the easiest ways to identify those folks is probably by their supernally smooth lying skills. Think about how charismatic TV preachers are, and think about how almost universally these folks turn out to be con-artists and frauds.
One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
Also, do not try this with the wife. "But honey, I have email proof!" only makes it worse.
I never lie, I always believe what I say. Sometimes others disagree though. Not my fault.
I've seen that people lie to me more often via text msg more often than via emails. Email seems more like an official documentation than text to most people, I guess even though both are logged and documented.
Some were yelling one thing, some another. Most of them had no idea what was going on or why they were there. Acts19:32
What ever happened to "say it forget it, write it regret it"?
That is a good point. I often use that technique not to deal with liars, but to CYA.
"Just to confirm, you told me that you understand everything I told you, but you don't want to deal with it right now and think it can wait until later. I'm okay with that. Just don't come crying to me when the systems are down because you didn't take me seriously."
All it takes is getting bit in the ass once to turn into an ass covering twit. I hate to be that guy, but I hate it even more to get caught holding the bag because someone above me decided that what I told them was important, really wasn't important.
You're right. I never meant to imply any sort of moral superiority. I was just taking the opportunity to poke fun at sales people, who seem to be paid to lie for a living.
In my experience, this does a good job of clearing up over-the-phone misunderstandings. But it does little to deter liars, who will ignore the email and simply claim later (if called out on their lie) that they hadn't read your call minutes, and this wasn't what they intended to say. "Those were your words, not mine."
Agreed with GP, a lie told by email is written record. A lie told by phone or in person can be refuted. Why would people prefer to leave a paper trail? Maybe it is just for fibs or other inconsequential lies.
Also I've had similar experience as GP with our sales force. Those guys will drop a lie like it's going out of style, any time they perceive it might work out in their favor. "I did XYZ yesterday on Customer ABC, but there's no record in the system of that today, and this caused me to miss my numbers." "No, in fact, not only did nobody even bring that customer record up, you weren't even signed into the system yesterday." I don't get how the level of dishonesty they demonstrate on a regular basis goes unpunished. I sincerely doubt I'd still have a job if I had the same standard of honesty.
Slay a dragon... over lunch!
Duh !!!!"
Yeah but how long do you keep an archive of your text messages compared to your email? At work I have 11 year old email archived - the oldest text message I have is from yesterday.
"But this one goes to 11!"
Good point. My point was just that my observation is people lie more often via texts.
Some were yelling one thing, some another. Most of them had no idea what was going on or why they were there. Acts19:32
Really. Most people only understand 44% of what you say, and email is forever! Sound's like a bunch of people are going to get in trouble. I don't know about you but in the IT world you always cover your butt with email, word of mouth is nothing.
But if everything you post is a lie and you say you are lying...
by Wikipedia
...sales people, who seem to be paid to lie for a living.
They don't lie, they just define truth differently.
People don't tell the truth in e-mails? What are you saying? Crown Prince Abalua Ngmbutte, who is seeking my help to move 23 million US Dollars out of the Central Reserve Bank of Nigeria might not be telling the truth? OMG! What am going to do? I was counting on my honest share of 8.2 million US Dollars to restart my life! Am I going to be ruined? Why bad things keep happening to me? When I am going to get my just reward?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
Someone e-mailed me this article. But, I am pretty sure it is all lies. After all, they e-mailed it to me...
Maybe, maybe not.
Unfortunately, AC posts are also where you find the trashy, hateful, racist sludge as well.
That's precisely what the Jews want you to think.
That's simply not true! And i should know since i invented both OpenBSD, The Internet and the vaccine against small pox!
Actually, the Force of Ad Hominem is strong with those types too. "I know you know I know you know" you are lying, but they're fast at an "Animalistic" response and it works in Media formats. "You couldn't defend the personal attack, therefore your credibility is down, therefore I must be right."
It's the whole Jocks vs Nerds thing from high school.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I am trying to figure out how you can get 10 different races... Or do you mean they are all black and she is white. (Of course if she was in NZ she could have sex with 'the All Blacks; (thats more than 10 though, theres 15 men on a rugby team (not counting reserves)
Or just don't marry habitual liars.
I am walking along a trail in the jungle. I arrive at a fork in the trail leading to two villages of Amazon tribeswomen. At the fork, there is a member of one of the two tribes, but I'm not certain which. One tribe's members always tell the truth, the other always lie. One tribe kidnaps travelers and makes them their sex slaves. The other does not.
Siri, what question should I ask this woman?
Have gnu, will travel.
If you're an honest and forthcoming person, I think you're willing to use the text aspect of internet communication to be more so.
If you're a dishonest person, you probably see the utility of electronic communication for deception and deceive more.
I think the same of people who prefer to talk on the phone. Email keeps a trail of evidence. Email keeps people honest in business. Phones are for off-the-record communication, now.
When people call me in response to an email, I frequently think that they just don't know how to form coherent sentences and want to put the responsibility of communication fully on me instead of them explaining something on the record.
"Dr. John Doe,
I apologize for the delay in getting your PC back out to you. I realize this is an urgent priority and I am working as fast as I can to fix it in a timely manner. At this time, I would continue to use your laptop computer to dictate so that you do not fall behind. The reason it is taking so long with this PC is your hard drive is actually defective. I had to remove the hard drive and copy off your data in parts, making sure I get it all. Your data and this PC are my number one priority and you will have it later this week. I thank you so much for your patience.
Thanks,
-Me"
Lies? Yeah. It's not my top priority since he has another PC... and I am working on six other "high priority" PCs, each of which affect patient care. The bad hard drive? Yeah, not true... just a way to delay the process (Although it is a 40GB Maxtor drive may as well be bad). Nonetheless, he obtained a brand new Desktop a few days later and was very happy. So yeah, I lied but in the end all is well.
"Dr. John Doe, I apologize for the delay in getting your PC back out to you. I realize this is an urgent priority and I am working as fast as I can to fix it in a timely manner. At this time, I would continue to use your laptop computer to dictate so that you do not fall behind. The reason it is taking so long with this PC is your hard drive is actually defective. I had to remove the hard drive and copy off your data in parts, making sure I get it all. Your data and this PC are my number one priority and you will have it later this week. I thank you so much for your patience. Thanks, -Me" Lies? Yeah. It's not my top priority since he has another PC... and I am working on six other "high priority" PCs, each of which affect patient care. The bad hard drive? Yeah, not true... just a way to delay the process (Although it is a 40GB Maxtor drive may as well be bad). Nonetheless, he obtained a brand new Desktop a few days later and was very happy. So yeah, I lied but in the end all is well. (I made another post by accident as an Anonymous Coward. Sorry for duplicate).
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
...Seeing as how I've been getting e-mails from all over the world for years now telling me that if I reply back with my credit card information I can get thousands of dollars from overseas bank accounts, but I never have, no matter how many times I reply telling them I've never had a credit card and never will! ;)
I'm honest enough to admit I lie to myself.
Liers wil lie.
There're psychological triggers that inhibits liers from lie when facing the interlocutors. These triggers doesn't happens they use a computer.
Digital media does not favors lying. It simply does not inhibits it.
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
Use asterisk or any other open pbx software at work FTW. Record everything. Use emails as an index for the recordings you care about. The recordings would have calling and called numbers in the filename, and are timestamped by the OS itself. Problem solved. You can play back their lies :)
Before then, I normally took the sitting position when I was emailing. Now I just hold the iPad while lying in bed. Progress!
Lying is only common when people try to interact with people. From what I've seen, people will almost never lie when they interact with devices or computer programs. Also, it is unlikely that an individual will lie when their anonymity is either assured, or enforced. When people interact about something they are personally invested in, the chances that they will lie go right through the roof!
as to the conclusion made in TFA, I'd say that the longer people have to make up lies, the more they will lie. It's not eMail that makes them lie, it's in the persons mind all the time. Also, in a face-to-face conversation, lying successfully becomes difficult for getting caught at it is a lot tougher. Your face and body language give things away that you'd have no trouble hiding in chat or mail.
I find it hard to believe someone actually used grant money to do this research! I could have come to the same conclusion without even thinking!
Geekism is your _only_ God!
The more impersonal the means of communication the more a person is likely to lie.
Looks like we found someone that works in sales!
Indeed
I've often found that telling the truth and actually being believed are two entirely different things.
I've had quite a few times where some jackass doesn't believe me simply because his scumbag chums are the ones lying and they take their word over mine. Even when I offered rock solid proof.
Also cases where the jackass in question simply just wants to hate my guts and isn't going to be deterred by inconvenient facts.
And then get either fired, sued, or even jailed for illegal wiretapping.
The fact that you recorded the conversation in the first place can get YOU in hot water more than the person you burn lying, and you may well be sent packing yourself before you can bust them.
In Washington state for example, recording a private conversation without consent is a gross misdemeanor.
See:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9.73.030
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9.73.080
When we need to lie, we pick up the phone. Emails are logged and archived.
I'm mostly kidding. I'm in IT. I do not need to lie. The sales staff on the other hand seems to make a living over promising things to clients.
You joke, but this is actually true. I manage about 20 employees for a publicly-traded company, and email used to be the primary mode of communication with HR, but I never get emails from them anymore unless it is an "official" carefully-worded broadcast email to all the managers. If HR needs to contact me about one of my employees for anything they call me... Even if it's just to give me a number. The last time I emailed HR to notify them that someone gave me their two week notice (nothing controversial, just a routine "so and so just handed me his two weeks notice, he says he's going back to school and his last day is such and such") it touched off a shit storm that involved the HR director calling my supervisor and ranting about how I need to be educated about the dangers of putting dates or names in an email. My supervisor was as shocked by this as I was, and cleverly suggested that I email the director a very vaguely-worded apology for anything I may or may not have done that could be perceived as inappropriate. This email earned me an irritated phone call from the director suggesting that I only contact. HR by phone from now on.
Personally, I like to have written confirmation of instructions to minimise confusion and to have something to point at if things get off the rails. But sometimes you will get an email and have to ring the sender just to short circuit a conversation that is spiralling out of control. Communication is a two-way street, and sometimes it is much easier and faster to clarify verbally than to keep ping-ponging emails back and forth when it's obvious you are talking at cross purposes.
The trick is to write a follow up email after the phone call confirming your understanding of the conversation.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
I find that my propensity for dissembling is limited by emails.
When I compose an email, am I typically under less stress / duress (someone isn't demanding an immediate response for information that I do not have), and can more carefully consider my words when emailing someone. In my experience, some people will play phone hostage with you, and ask you to commit or agree to things that cannot be. Something along the lines of "I need this website up by 2 PM," when it's 1:45 PM, and it requires a major overhaul, but the person on the other end of the phone does not appreciate that, nor care to understand that, as they have a client (who is late giving us needed information) breathing down their necks. So, a Catch-22; hang up, and the person will take it as an offense, or stay on, and they don't let you go until you agree to the impossible. So happy I will never do web programming for another person ever again, after I finish this one final project (for a good man).
I also tend to be a lot more polite, as typical interactions I have with people can be so fast or demanding that I must put aside the usual niceties of human conversation.
I am John Hurt.
I am lying and I am telling you the truth
--whacky
The research paper, titled “Liar, Liar, Hard Drive on Fire: How Media Context Affects Lying Behavior,” looked at 110 same-sex pairs of college students who engaged in 15 minute conversations
Sorry, but I would call anyone who is more tempted to lie in electronic communication than IRL an idiot. All it takes is someone who compulsively saves their e-mails and chat logs for the lie to fly right in your face and potentially be exposed to people you'd rather not want to know about it. If the average American college student is more tempted to lie in electronic communication than in face-to-face talking, then we're dooomed.
I hear more lies out of peoples' mouths which can be contested as he-said-she-said than in emails which can be cited and referenced in the future.
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