Psychologist Justin Kruger, PhD, has seen plenty of e-mails gone
awry. Kruger, a professor at New York University, was once a
member of a psychology departmental e-mail list at a different
university. A job candidate came into town to interview for a
faculty position. The faculty member responsible for organizing
a meet-and-greet dinner sent around an e-mail invitation that
read "talking to the candidate is not required; just don't
embarrass us." "She meant it as a joke, but much to her surprise
some people were really upset," says Kruger. "It was a comical
miscommunication." Now, Kruger and his colleague Nicholas Epley,
PhD, of the University of Chicago, have published research that
helps explain why these electronic misunderstandings occur so
frequently. In a study in the December Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology (Vol. 89, No. 5, pages 925-936), they find
that people overestimate both their ability to convey their
intended tone-be it sarcastic, serious or funny-when they send
an e-mail, as well