Email: The Best Way to Lie

Lying is part of human nature: People spend 25 percent of their time doing it. But if you really need to lie, pick up the phone. In two separate studies, researchers have found that it’s easier for people to lie in an email than in any other written form of communication, including hand-written notes. The researchers asked a group of 48 MBA students to divide $89 between themselves and an unspecified person in the class. The students were told that they had to make an offer their partner was willing to accept, and that their partner knew the pot was between $5 and $100. The MBA students were asked to disclose in writing the amount they were giving to their partner. The disclosures were shown only to the researchers. When the students used email to write the amount, they lied 92 percent of the time, as opposed to 64 percent ...