SQJ Taipei

I’m not sure we needed a special study to show us that it is difficult to correctly ascertain the tone of an email message. But it is interesting and the results are even more skewed than I would have thought.

Wired News:The Secret Cause of Flame Wars

I’m actually pretty certain that I’ve never gotten in an actual “flame war”. But I do know that the tone of my email has been misunderstood by the recipient on MANY occasions and the results ranged from embarassing to downright ugly. I am SURE that I’ve misinterpreted the tone of emails I’ve received also……. um…. sorry.

The researchers took 30 pairs of undergraduate students and gave each one a list of 20 statements about topics like campus food or the weather. Assuming either a serious or sarcastic tone, one member of each pair e-mailed the statements to his or her partner. The partners then guessed the intended tone and indicated how confident they were in their answers.

Those who sent the messages predicted that nearly 80 percent of the time their partners would correctly interpret the tone. In fact the recipients got it right just over 50 percent of the time.

“People often think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they ‘hear’ the tone they intend in their head as they write,” Epley explains.

Seems like we are always finding ways in which our pride gets in the way of what we’re trying to do………………