For some people, they never feel more at home then when they are striking up a conversation with a stranger. Just friends you haven’t met yet, right? But for many, especially introverts — even the outgoing ones — a networking experience can range anywhere from draining to terrifying.
But according to a new study from Cornell University and the University of Waterloo in Canada, when you’re making a request, you’ll actually fare better in person than over email. Because even if you approach it with the best of intentions, it’s a lot easier for someone to say no with the digital divide between you.
“Requesters likely do not recognize the effect of these limitations of email,” wrote researchers Vanessa K. Bohns and M. Mahdi Roghanizad. “Anchored on the intimate knowledge they have of their own trustworthiness and circumstances, we theorize requesters will struggle to envision what their targets see: a suspicious email…