Is face-to-face communication really always better?
November 21, 2008 – 4:01 pm
Image via WikipediaCommunicating Persuasively: Email or Face-to-Face?
Our intuitive understanding is that face-to-face communication is the most persuasive. In reality, of course, it’s not always possible to meet in person, so email wins out. How, then, do people react to persuasion attempts over email? Persuasion research has uncovered fascinating effects: that men seem more responsive to email because it bypasses their competitive tendencies (Guadagno & Cialdini, 2002). Women, however, may respond better in face-to-face encounters because they are more ‘relationship-minded’.
I don’t know a gender composition of your development team, but ours is 100% men.
More work, less status games?
