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.