Here’s an interesting article on the psychology of communication:
Link: PsyBlog | Psychology Blog: Communicating Persuasively: Email or Face-to-Face?.
Our intuitive understanding is that face-to-face communication is the most persuasive. In reality, of course, it’s not always possible to meet in person, so email wins out. How, then, do people react to persuasion attempts over email? Persuasion research has uncovered fascinating effects: that men seem more responsive to email because it bypasses their competitive tendencies (Guadagno & Cialdini, 2002). Women, however, may respond better in face-to-face encounters because they are more ‘relationship-minded’. But is this finding just a gender stereotype?
I wonder if there’s any material difference between email and blog comment forum discussions?
About 60% of my pastoral work is accomplished via email– more and more each year, in fact. In recent years I have noted that men tend to reveal more than women via email and so this form of communication is more productive with men. Women tend to prefer the face-to-face encounter. The younger the parishioner the more likley that these presumed gender differences no longer holds.