Study Shows People More Likely to Lie when Texting

A new study done by the University of British Columbia's, Saunders School of Business, suggests that people are more likely to lie when texting compared to other forms of communication such as speaking, using Skype, talking on the phone or sending emails. The results of the study, published on the University's SSB website, seem to indicate that people view texting as a less intimate type of communication that allows more room for deceit, than other types.

The purpose of the study was, according to co-author, Associate Professor Ronald Cenfetelli, to see if people felt more disassociated with the people they were texting with than did those that communicated in other ways, which might lead to more deceitful interactions. The thinking was, the more anonymity in the interaction, the more room for deceit to exist between both parties. To find out if this was the case, the team enlisted the help of 170 volunteer students from the university to carry out a mock stock-broker/buyer exercise where some of volunteers portrayed stock-brokers and had "insider" information not available to the buyers. Stock-brokers and buyers were assigned different means of communicating: texting, face-to-face, video or by phone. Also, to push the boundaries of morality play, cash bonuses were promised to those who did the best in the exercise and buyers were told at the end of the exercise about the insider information that the brokers had.

The researchers were privy to all conversations and thus were able to build up a database consisting of transactional information; specifically, whether or not participants on either side were dishonest with one another.

After studying all the results the researchers found that buyers, for example, who used texting were 95% more likely to report deception by brokers than did those who used any other type of media. Those that used video were 31% more likely and those spoke face-to-face, just 18%.

This suggests, the researchers contend, that those that communicate via texting feel less on the spot, which allows them to be more or less frank, and deceptive, depending on the circumstances. It also appears to provide fertile ground for the relaxation of moral or ethical behavior. Thus, they say, people who communicate with other people on the Internet should consider the type of technology used to do so, with the understanding that most people will likely find it easier to be deceptive and/or morally ambiguous with them; and vice-versa, of course.