When E-mail Doesn't Work

Here is an interesting article about why e-mail often does not work as well as we think it should to convey information.

In effect, e-mail cannot adequately convey emotion. A recent study by Profs. Justin Kruger of New York University and Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago focused on how well sarcasm is detected in electronic messages. Their conclusion: Not only do e-mail senders overestimate their ability to communicate feelings, but e-mail recipients also overestimate their ability to correctly decode those feelings.
One reason for this, the business-school professors say, is that people are egocentric. They assume others experience stimuli the same way they do.

I must admit I have found this to be the case in business as well, though not as much in personal communications with friends.

I am reminded of a section in the Screwtape Letters, where Wormwood advises his nephew to best disrupt communication between two people by making the talker think his words should be taken in their most literal sense, while the listener is encouraged to find every nuance of voice and body language. Thus, a simple question like "Where did you put the butter?" becomes a matter of family discord as the hearer thinks it is an accusation (Where do YOU put the butter? /Implied, you never put things away in the right place/) and the speaker refuses to see anything wrong in what is said. This kind of thing is commonplace in business e-mails in tense situations.