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The Psychology of Communication Breakdown In E-mail

E-mail has represented a truly revolutionary change in communication technology. Over the years, it has become deep-seated in our social fabric. We use it regularly for work, staying in touch with friends, family, and even as a personal data locker for storing pictures, important documents and more. To most of us, email is an inextricable part of how we interact and communicate with others.

Because of its prevalence, a great deal of research has gone into understanding the psychology of communication in email. One of the most significant discoveries about email communication is that when we send an email, we tend to overestimate our ability to communicate our intended message. Likewise, those on the receiving end overestimate their ability to interpret our intended meaning.

Why You’ll Benefit From Reading This:

- Anticipate miscommunication
- Reduce ambiguity in written communication

Image Source: Mindtools

Let’s look at communication at its most basic. On the one end you have a message sender, on the other, a message receiver. The sender wants to communicate an idea to the receiver.  But between the idea, the manifestation of the idea (i.e. the execution of the message/ content of the e-mail) and the recipient decoding the idea, there can be a host of obstacles along the way.

In general, we as humans assume that we deliver a message with the intended meaning. However, studies have consistently shown that we are overconfident about how well we communicate our message.

In one study, which we will look at in a moment, participants thought that their sarcasm would be communicated nearly 80% of the time. When the communication took place face-to-face this was accurate. But over email, the actual figure was 56%. Paralinguistic cues such as facial expressions, gestures, intonation, are obviously far more challenging to express over email.

The Communication Paradox

Today’s fast-paced, wired world includes a plethora of communication options at our disposal. From e-mail, voicemail, telephone, cell phones, SMS, the influx of communication outlets may be fast and convenient, but also give us less time to dedicate our full attention to the actual message. This phenomenon has come to be known as Information Overload! Overload makes it far easier for critical information to slip right by us. The thousands of ways to communicate vs. the only so many hours in day (to actually dedicate to each message) creates a communication paradox, which can actually hinder communication.

Without those important face-to-face paralinguistic cues, there is vital nonverbal information preventing us from fully understanding the sender’s meaning. You see, speech can not only convey what is said, but how it is said too. E-mail on the other hand is limited to the former. 

What’s Causing Communication Breakdown In E-mail?

1. Egocentrism.

Our ego is what helps us organize our thoughts and make sense of the world around us. Given this, it’s only natural that we judge others using ourselves as a point of reference. Yet it is exactly this inherent difficulty detaching ourselves when evaluating the perspective of others that causes communication breakdown. Why? Because we don’t anticipate miscommunication.

Study: Sarcasm in Email

Procedure: Sixty Cornell University psychology students were paired up and given a questionnaire that contained a series of 20 statements.The students were asked to identify these statements as either Sarcastic or Serious. (Participants within each pair received a different list so that they would not be sending each other the same statements.)

Then, each participant was asked to select ten statements that they believed would be easiest for the other person to correctly identify as sarcastic or serious (the number of serious vs. sarcastic statements varied randomly across participants).

Next, one member of the pair read each statement they had selected into a tape recorder exactly as written, (neutral tone). The other was asked to type and e-mail the statements they had selected. Once the process was complete, the participants were asked to predict how many statements the other participant would be able to decode correctly.

Finally, participants listened to (or read) the statements selected by the other, then indicated whether they thought each statement was intended to be sarcastic or not.

Results:

Participants who listened to the statements decoded nearly three-quarters of them, compared to participants who read them on e-mail only identified them correctly half the time.

Possible Solution…

-Use the sarcmark.

Since it can be difficult to convey irony in your email, a US firm recently came up with a very innovative solution- a new item of punctuation called the sarcmark (sarcastic mark). (No, I’m not kidding.)  If you don’t mind losing part of the irony of your statement, this symbol at least offers a subtle alternative to omitting the statement completely and can help avoid any awkward misunderstandings.

2. Failing to connect with the reader.

Also tying into how our egos affect our written communication is how even when people try to anticipate the perspective of their e-mail audience, they tend to only base it on their own experience. It’s important to put yourself in the recipient’s shoes, as we naturally tend to insufficiently consider our audience’s perspective.

3. People feel less cooperative over email.

A study on email communication and group cooperation showed that in face-to-face negotiations people are more cooperative whereas in e-mail they are far more at ease being disobliging. This has been attributed to the fact that people feel less restrained over email and also tend to be more negative.

At least that’s what one study looking at the effect of using e-mail for performance appraisals of peers (versus pen-and-paper)   illustrated. Evaluators were significantly more negative towards their peers when using e-mail than when using traditional paper-form methods.

4. Taking for granted the reader will understand your intended meaning.

Again, our e-mail message may be more ambiguous than we realize. Emoticons and other tools such as ToneCheck have emerged in order to address this phenomenon, however it’s important to highlight the importance of clarity.

Study: Humour in Email

Image Source: Geenegee

Procedure: Fifty-eight University of Illinois students participated in a study to determine how humour gets communicated in email. Participants were given a list of 10 “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey” from the Saturday Night Live skits, then put into groups, one group that watched the skits, the other that only had the list. All participants were asked to choose and rate (on a scale ranging from 1 (not at all funny) to 11 (very funny) the 5 funniest deep-thoughts, which would then be e-mailed to another participant, later in the experiment.

Results:

Just as the researchers expected, participants in the videotape condition thought that the “Deep Thoughts” were funnier than the participants in the control condition did. The same was also true about participants’ predictions about how the jokes would be evaluated by the person at the other end of the computer. This study goes to show that attempts at hurmour over e-mail (unless you’re a seasoned comedian) often don’t pack the same punch over e-mail.

Context and personal experience play a huge role in how we believe others will understand our message.  As this study showcased, participants overestimated the extent to which humor would be conveyed based on their own experiences.

Solutions:

-Simple, direct English. Be brief, clear and to the point. Remember, these are written forms of communication that can be printed out and viewed by others. Always use your spell check, and avoid slang or jargon that could be ambiguous and confusing to the recipient.

-Don’t assume. Be formal in e-mails until you are confident that it is appropriate to adopt a more casual tone with the person. Give all of the background information you can to ensure your message is clear and will have the best chances of being understood the way you intended.

This means understanding your audience and your objective in messaging them. What do they need to know?

-Proper organization & attractive layout. Make sure your emails are well organized, divided into short paragraphs, with critical points stated first. Ask the recipient questions to emphasize critical points and engage them. It will also help you to find out if they understand your intended meaning. 

-Proofread. – Proofread your messages. Always.  Check grammar and punctuation, but also be aware of your tone. If you think there’s something in your message that may get misinterpreted, chances are it will.
If it’s a very important email, have a third-party read it over as well.  This can give you added perspective on how well it will be received by the intended recipient.

For further tips, read our post on 16 email faux-pas to avoid.

(Read full study: Egocentrism Over Email: Can We Communicate as well as we Think?)

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