Here is the research I did on the psychological impacts of relying on email as a communication tool. I was motivated by my own needs to figure out why email has been impacting my business negatively here recently. So the obvious question is "then why am I still using email to communicate with people?" It's because I found that the problems are not on a global "email is bad" level. The problems are due to a lack of awareness of the psychology of email.

Here are the highlights of the research I found:

• Almost 50% of all emails are incorrectly interpreted in some way by the receiver.
• Both the sender and the receiver fill in the tone of an email based upon how they feel or what they fear, not what's actually being said.
• Most emails go unchallenged, meaning you might be angering people, bruising egos or burning bridges and you'll never even know it.
• E-mailers assume that other people have the same inside information about their intentions and motivations that they do-what social psychologists call egocentrism.
• E-mail is fine if you just want to communicate content, but not any emotional material.

Like any other tool, it's up to the discretion of the individual as to whether an email is a good or bad. My only goal is to create awareness with those in which I have email relationships.

Here are some great articles that I found on the subject.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb06/egos.html

http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/nicholas.epley/Krugeretal05.pdf

http://www.youmeworks.com/no_honking.html

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/003470.html