Why People Are More Honest When Writing on Their Smartphones (wsj.com) 12
The restaurant review that divulges distressing family dynamics. The Facebook post that rehashes an embarrassing encounter. The tweet that reveals a phobia few people know about. On our smartphones, we are quick to reveal private emotions and highly personal experiences to faceless strangers. From a report: Building on her earlier research that equated smartphones with adult pacifiers, Shiri Melumad, an assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, set out to determine why we express ourselves in a more intimate, personal style on our smartphones than on our personal computers -- and how marketers can harness this behavior. In research published in March in the Journal of Marketing, Dr. Melumad conducted three field studies and two controlled experiments. One study looked at nearly 300,000 Twitter posts created in a 12-hour span. Tweets written on phones contained 47% more first-person pronouns and 52% more references to family than those written on PCs, she found.
"Consumers tend to convey feelings or thoughts that are more private or intimate on their smartphones, which is captured by the use of 'I' or 'we' and mentioning family and friends," says Dr. Melumad. A second study employed 1,380 judges as well as natural-language processing software to analyze a random sample of more than 10,000 TripAdvisor restaurant reviews. The software scan revealed that reviews written on smartphones again contained more first-person pronouns and more references to friends. And, crucially for marketers, they were judged to be more self-disclosing and, in turn, more persuasive. "Smartphone-generated content seems to be more diagnostic of how people truly feel," Dr. Melumad says. "Those reviews heightened readers' interest in visiting the restaurant." The final field study found that people were more likely to disclose personal information in response to an ad when targeted on their smartphone than on their PC.
"Consumers tend to convey feelings or thoughts that are more private or intimate on their smartphones, which is captured by the use of 'I' or 'we' and mentioning family and friends," says Dr. Melumad. A second study employed 1,380 judges as well as natural-language processing software to analyze a random sample of more than 10,000 TripAdvisor restaurant reviews. The software scan revealed that reviews written on smartphones again contained more first-person pronouns and more references to friends. And, crucially for marketers, they were judged to be more self-disclosing and, in turn, more persuasive. "Smartphone-generated content seems to be more diagnostic of how people truly feel," Dr. Melumad says. "Those reviews heightened readers' interest in visiting the restaurant." The final field study found that people were more likely to disclose personal information in response to an ad when targeted on their smartphone than on their PC.
What about, simply is fresher experience? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know that people are "more honest" writing on smartphones, so much as they are able to write something like a review when an experience is much, much fresher in memory and therefore more accurate.
Re: (Score:3)
This, but it may also have something to do with the viewing angle. One looks down onto a phone, but forward when looking at a monitor. Naturally, when we look down do we look more at ourselves, our feet and body, and hence we lean towards making statements that centre around ourselves and the people closest to us. Whereas when we look forward do we look less to ourselves and more towards the horizon and the bigger picture and so it may influence the statements we make without directly realising it.
Re: What about, simply is fresher experience? (Score:2)
I belive like you that time to is a factor, but I would describe it as more of a triggered response vs. considered opinion and I'd be reluctant to use words duch as as more honest.
Re: (Score:2)
I think it's more about our relationship to our devices.
Our smartphones are personal, intimate and use. We carry it all the time and it's always with us, and is a reflection of our personality with all the customization we do to them from cases and stickers and straps to wallpapers and sounds.
The computer is not so personal - even though it's a "personal computer" we don't really feel the same way with them. The computer isn't always "hanging out with me" - I carry the phone in my pocket, my laptop in my ba
I'm more blunt (Score:3)
I blame Siri (Score:2)
She keeps getting dictation wrong - that makes me angry, my personal filters fall away, and by the time I decide to type the message manually I end up taking my anger out on the recipient.
Honesty isn't defined by the use of pronouns (Score:2)
Need examples? I don't lie. We know the truth. I do lie. We know nothing. ...
Honest? (Score:2)
So, anyone who values privacy is now dishonest?
Re: (Score:1)
Oh noes! Honesty! (Score:2)
The problem is not honesty.
It is that it is hard to also say it in a nice manner. :P)
Especially when the reader will read it in a tone fitting *his* current mood, and interpret things with *his* triggers. (Like implying you can't say "blacklisting", because 'clearly' you must have said that to be hateful and discriminating.
And then answer that way too, because the other side does not feel like a real human in the real world. (Because the medium blocks empathy.)
Strange conclusion (Score:2)
I'd say, people who use their smartphones for everything are just dumber.
I call BS! (Score:1)