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Egocentrism over e-mail: can we communicate as well as we think?
Justin Kruger1, Nicholas Epley, Jason Parker
1New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, NY 10012, USA. jkruger@stern.nyu.edu
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|January 6, 2006
Summary
Electronic mail (e-mail) lacks nonverbal cues, hindering emotional expression. People overestimate their e-mail communication skills due to egocentrism, failing to recognize audience perception differences.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Communication Studies
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Electronic mail (e-mail) lacks paralinguistic cues like tone and gesture.
- This absence complicates the accurate conveyance of emotion and intent in digital communication.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the underappreciated limitations of conveying emotion and tone in e-mail.
- To examine the role of egocentrism in overestimating e-mail communication effectiveness.
Main Methods:
- Conducted five experiments to assess e-mail communication effectiveness.
- Analyzed participants' self-perceived communication abilities versus actual outcomes.
- Investigated egocentrism as a factor in misjudging audience interpretation.
Main Results:
- Participants consistently underestimated the difficulty of conveying emotion and tone via e-mail.
- A significant overconfidence bias was observed in users' self-assessment of e-mail communication skills.
- Egocentrism was identified as a key contributor to this overconfidence, impairing perspective-taking.
Conclusions:
- The lack of paralinguistic cues in e-mail significantly impairs emotional and tonal communication.
- Overconfidence in e-mail communication stems from egocentrism, leading to a failure to accurately gauge audience reception.
- Awareness of these limitations is crucial for improving digital communication strategies.