Lügen fällt am Telefon besonders leicht - E-Mails sind verlässlicher

Interessante Studie: Mail ermöglicht "Festnageln" des Schreibers

Am Telefon lügt es sich einer neuen Studie zufolge besonders leicht. Die größte Chance, von seinem Gegenüber nicht angeschwindelt zu werden, hat man dagegen per E-Mail. Das hat der US- Forscher Jeff Hancock von der Cornell University in Ithaca (US-Bundesstaat New York) herausgefunden.

E-Mails sind verlässlicher

Während per E-Mail nur 14 Prozent seiner Probanden Lügen erzählten, waren es im Gespräch von Angesicht zu Angesicht immerhin 27 Prozent. Und via Telefon flunkerten sogar 37 Prozent der Versuchsteilnehmer, berichtet das britische Wissenschaftsmagazin "New Scientist". Angaben zur Ehrlichkeit traditioneller Briefeschreiber lagen nicht vor.

Eine Woche

Hancock bat für die Untersuchung seine Studenten, eine Woche lang in einem Tagebuch jede Kommunikation von mehr als zehn Minuten Dauer festzuhalten. Auch jeder Flunkerer sollte aufrichtig vermerkt werden. Das Ergebnis, das auf einer Konferenz zur Mensch-Computer-Interaktion im April in Wien veröffentlicht werden soll, dürfte dort diejenigen Psychologen überraschen, die Mail-Schreiber als besonders fabulierfreudig ansehen.

"Festnageln" möglich

Hancock hält jedoch dagegen, dass gerade die geschriebene Mail ein "Festnageln" des Schreibers ermögliche. Gesprochenes hingegen sei eher Schall und Rauch. Auch ermögliche die zeitversetzte Konversation, über die Antwort nachzudenken. Spontane Notlügen seien sonst bei einer Frage wie "Magst Du mein Kleid?" praktisch schon programmiert.(APA/dpa)

Und hier der Link zum Orginalartikel The Impact of Communication Technology on Lying Behavior (pdf)

April 2006 New Scientist:

Love special: Modern romance

Auszüge im Zitat: However, it is the nature of online interactions themselves that intrigues psychologists and sociologists. There is growing evidence that communicating online is more conducive to openness than a face-to-face rendezvous. "We tend to interact differently online," says Ren Reynolds, a virtual-world consultant based in the UK. "We tend to be more honest, more intimate with people."

This is known as the "hyperpersonal" effect, a term coined in 1996 by Joe Walther of Cornell University in New York (Communication Research, vol 23, p 3). Walther says that communicating by typed message gives people time to construct their responses. It also frees them from worrying about how they look and sound, so they can focus exclusively on what they're saying. Without the cues that we rely on to form impressions during face-to-face encounters, such as facial expressions and mannerisms, people can build more positive impressions of each other without being confronted with a jarring reality that might put them off.

Nick Yee of Stanford University, California, studies how the hyperpersonal effect operates in virtual worlds, where people get to know each other "from the inside out". "In real life we judge a person by their physical appearance and then we get to know their character and values. In a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, the reverse is true," he writes on the virtual-worlds blog Terra Nova. This is an experience that Erika, who is in her early 20s and moved to the UK from the US after meeting her husband Damien inside Second Life, has also enjoyed. "In real life you are usually first attracted to someone by their looks," she says. "However, online you can't touch or look. All you can see is their personality."

Online communication can also encourage people to take risks, because there is always the opportunity to simply disappear if things become awkward or embarrassing. And while it is certainly easy to lie online, it turns out it's even easier to tell the truth. In a 2002 study, Walther showed that people communicating online were much more likely to disclose personal details about themselves (Human Communication Research, vol 28, p 317). Experts believe that this is because people are shielded from disapproving facial expressions and awkward consequences.