Overconfidence at the Keyboard: Confidence and Accuracy in Interpreting Affect in E-Mail Exchanges

Abstract

Gesture, voice, expression, and context add richness to communications that increase chances of accurate interpretation. E-mails lack much of this richness, leading readers to impose their own richness. Three experiments tested the effect of communicator relationship and availability of context on e-mail writer and reader confidence levels and accuracy. Effects of nonverbal and verbal behavior were also investigated. Results showed that confidence levels for both writers and readers were high, yet somewhat unwarranted based on accuracy rates. Further, writers had more confidence that friends would correctly interpret e-mails than strangers, although friends showed no more accuracy. Findings suggest that reliance upon friendship and context, as well as verbal and nonverbal cues, to interpret emotion in e-mail is ineffective, sometimes detrimental.