A study has found that online messages are more likely to get you a date than a simple phone call. This study definitely contradicts previous research that claims that email and text messages can lack emotion.
The researchers from Indiana University and California State University – Sacramento conducted the study using 72 teenagers. The researchers placed skin sensors on the subjects’ faces to measure muscle movement associated with positive and negative emotion and on their feet to measure arousal.
The researchers found that people who sent romantic emails were more emotionally aroused and used stronger and more thoughtful language than those who left voice mails.
“The bottom line is that email is much better when you want to convey some information you want someone to think about,” said Alan Dennis of Indiana University, reports Daily Mail.
“When writing romantic emails, senders consciously or subconsciously added more positive content to their messages, perhaps to compensate for the medium’s inability to convey vocal tone,” the authors Alan Dennis of Indiana University and Taylor Wells of California State University – Sacramento wrote.
The researchers also warned people against misinterpreting these findings to suggest that face-to-face meetings, personal phone calls and other direct forms of communications aren’t as useful.
The study has been accepted for publication in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.
Phil