Thanks to technology, we can communicate in any convenient form from different parts of the world. But does this mean that we have become less honest with each other? Social psychologists and experts have drawn attention to the fact that the desire to deceive may depend on the chosen means of communication. Here's what the data shows.
How lies and technology are interconnected
In 2004, communication researcher Jeff Hancock and his colleagues asked 28 college students to count how many times they communicated in person, by phone, via instant messaging, and via email during a week. The students also recorded how many times they lied during each social interaction.
often over the phone and least often over email. This data is consistent with a concept that Hancock called the feature-based model.
According to this concept, how often we lie depends on the belize number data characteristics of the chosen communication method. For example, whether the technology allows for continuous communication, how quickly messages are transmitted, and whether people are far apart.
In Hancock's study, the technology that has all these functions—the telephone—had the highest rate of lying in social interactions. The least—the email, which allows people to communicate synchronously and the messages themselves are stored.
What current data shows
When Hancock conducted his research, only students at a select few universities could create a Facebook account, and the iPhone was in its early stages of development as a confidential project called Project Purple.
How have these numbers changed in the past 20 years? David Markowitz, an assistant professor of social media analytics at the University of Oregon, set out to find out.
The new study involved 250 people and took into account a wider range of technologies. Over the course of a week, they recorded their social interactions and how often they lied in person, on social media, over the phone, via text, video chat, and via email.
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