Electronic mail versus printed text: the effects on recipients

K Hill; A F Monk

Electronic mail versus printed text: the effects on recipients

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Experiment 1 examined power of email communications, compared to equivalent printed communications, to influence a recipient's behaviour. 160 people were sent requests to volunteer for an experiment. Half received these requests through email and half on printed media through the internal mail. These groups were further subdivided into those who replied by internal or electronic mail. There was no evidence that an email message has less weight in persuading people to reply positively. The pattern of reply frequencies is completely explained by the relative effort required to reply. Experiment 2 examined recipients' reactions to email and print communications using rating scales. An email and printed text group were asked to rate two documents, a job application and a thank you note, on various qualities. While the content of the document had a significant effect on ratings, there was no evidence that recipients rate messages or their senders differently depending on the medium used. It is concluded that for this student population email has taken on many of the characteristics previously expected of print. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	253-263
Number of pages	11
Journal	Interacting With Computers
Volume	13
Issue number	2
Publication status	Published - Dec 2000

Keywords

email
printed communications
COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION

Cite this

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title = "Electronic mail versus printed text: the effects on recipients",

abstract = "Experiment 1 examined power of email communications, compared to equivalent printed communications, to influence a recipient's behaviour. 160 people were sent requests to volunteer for an experiment. Half received these requests through email and half on printed media through the internal mail. These groups were further subdivided into those who replied by internal or electronic mail. There was no evidence that an email message has less weight in persuading people to reply positively. The pattern of reply frequencies is completely explained by the relative effort required to reply. Experiment 2 examined recipients' reactions to email and print communications using rating scales. An email and printed text group were asked to rate two documents, a job application and a thank you note, on various qualities. While the content of the document had a significant effect on ratings, there was no evidence that recipients rate messages or their senders differently depending on the medium used. It is concluded that for this student population email has taken on many of the characteristics previously expected of print. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.",

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N2 - Experiment 1 examined power of email communications, compared to equivalent printed communications, to influence a recipient's behaviour. 160 people were sent requests to volunteer for an experiment. Half received these requests through email and half on printed media through the internal mail. These groups were further subdivided into those who replied by internal or electronic mail. There was no evidence that an email message has less weight in persuading people to reply positively. The pattern of reply frequencies is completely explained by the relative effort required to reply. Experiment 2 examined recipients' reactions to email and print communications using rating scales. An email and printed text group were asked to rate two documents, a job application and a thank you note, on various qualities. While the content of the document had a significant effect on ratings, there was no evidence that recipients rate messages or their senders differently depending on the medium used. It is concluded that for this student population email has taken on many of the characteristics previously expected of print. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

AB - Experiment 1 examined power of email communications, compared to equivalent printed communications, to influence a recipient's behaviour. 160 people were sent requests to volunteer for an experiment. Half received these requests through email and half on printed media through the internal mail. These groups were further subdivided into those who replied by internal or electronic mail. There was no evidence that an email message has less weight in persuading people to reply positively. The pattern of reply frequencies is completely explained by the relative effort required to reply. Experiment 2 examined recipients' reactions to email and print communications using rating scales. An email and printed text group were asked to rate two documents, a job application and a thank you note, on various qualities. While the content of the document had a significant effect on ratings, there was no evidence that recipients rate messages or their senders differently depending on the medium used. It is concluded that for this student population email has taken on many of the characteristics previously expected of print. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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KW - printed communications

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JO - Interacting With Computers

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