OMG! Texting ups truthfulness, new iPhone study

[Hum]

ANN ARBOR, Mich.?Text messaging is a surprisingly good way to get candid responses to sensitive questions, according to a new study to be presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.

?The preliminary results of our study suggest that people are more likely to disclose sensitive information via text messages than in voice interviews,? said Fred Conrad, a cognitive psychologist and director of the Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

?This is sort of surprising since many people thought that texting would decrease the likelihood of disclosing sensitive information because it creates a persistent, visual record of questions and answers that others might see on your phone and in the cloud.?

With text, the researchers also found that people were less likely to engage in ?satisficing??a survey industry term referring to the common practice of giving good enough, easy answers, like rounding to multiples of 10 in numerical responses, for example.

?We believe people give more precise answers via texting because there?s just not the time pressure in a largely asynchronous mode like text that there is in phone interviews,? Conrad said. ?As a result, respondents are able to take longer to arrive at more accurate answers.?

So far it seems that texting may reduce some respondents? tendency to shade the truth or to present themselves in the best possible light in an interview?even when they know it?s a human interviewer they are communicating with via text. What we cannot yet be sure of is who is most likely to be disclosive in text. Is it different for frequent texters, or generational, for example??

For the study, the researchers recruited approximately 600 iPhone-users on Craigslist, through Google Ads, and from Amazon?s Mechanical Turk, offering them iTunes Store incentives to participate in the study.

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[Charisma Veteran]

I think it's the same principle as writing emails, or letters on paper, or even getting a friend to pass along bad news. Remember in grade school or even high school, the people who were too shy to ask someone out directly would send a note, "do you like me? check yes or no" or whatever. It's easier to broach sensitive subjects or whatever when you aren't face to face, you can't see their reaction and potentially their rejection, judgement, laughing at you, etc. And if you're telling the truth about something that could potentially upset the person, you always feel safer farther away, where you won't have to see them until maybe their initial anger cools, etc. Texting may be relatively new, but the concept/tendency of human nature is quite old.

[Hum]

The other night I texted someone -- was embarassing, but truthful.

[Charisma Veteran]

The other night I texted someone -- was embarassing, but truthful.

Yeah, I got it. You should really get that checked out at the clinic..

;)

[Growled Member]

I think it's the same principle as writing emails, or letters on paper, or even getting a friend to pass along bad news. Remember in grade school or even high school, the people who were too shy to ask someone out directly would send a note, "do you like me? check yes or no" or whatever. It's easier to broach sensitive subjects or whatever when you aren't face to face, you can't see their reaction and potentially their rejection, judgement, laughing at you, etc. And if you're telling the truth about something that could potentially upset the person, you always feel safer farther away, where you won't have to see them until maybe their initial anger cools, etc. Texting may be relatively new, but the concept/tendency of human nature is quite old.

So true. I find it easier to write something rather than say it.