Texting vs calling: new study explains why a phone call means more than a feeble text

When it comes to texting vs calling, new research finds that calling wins hands down if your goal is to connect with someone in a meaningful way.

A new study from the University of Texas at Austin suggests that people too often choose to send email or text when a phone call is more likely to produce the feelings of connectedness they crave.

People often mistakenly believe that calling will be awkward

The mew study recently appeared in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

It found that people generally chose text because they believed a phone call would be more awkward.

But they were wrong, according to the study’s co-author Amit Kumar.

“People feel significantly more connected through voice-based media, but they have these fears about awkwardness that are pushing them towards text-based media,” he said.

Texting vs calling: make that phone call

In one experiment, researchers asked 200 people to predict what it would be like to reconnect with an old friend.

The options were via text-based communication or phone.

They then randomly assigned those participants to actually connect.

Participants knew that a phone call would indeed make them feel more connected.

Nonetheless, they still said they preferred the text-based method because they expected calling would be too awkward.

But the phone call went much better than an email, the study found.

“When it came to actual experience, people reported they did form a significantly stronger bond with their old friend on the phone versus email, and they did not feel more awkward,” Kumar said.

The sound of the voice builds the bond

In another experiment, researchers randomly assigned strangers to connect via one of three ways.

Those included a live chat, talking over video chat, or talking using only audio.

Participants didn’t expect that the media they used would matter.

But the researchers found when people actually interacted, they felt significantly more connected when they communicated by talking than by typing.

And, again, they found that calling didn’t create the expected awkwardness.

In fact, the voice itself — even without visual cues — seemed to be integral to bonding, the researchers found.

A phone call doesn’t take as long as people fear it will

Confronting another myth about voice-based media, researchers timed participants when they reconnected with an old friend.

They found the call took about the same amount of time as reading and responding to e-mail.

The researchers said the results both reveal and challenge people’s assumptions about texting vs calling.

And that comes at a moment when managing relationships via technology is especially important.

“We’re being asked to maintain physical distance, but we still need these social ties for our well-being — even for our health,” Kumar said.

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Texting vs calling: 5 reasons why texting is the better option

1. Texting is less intrusive than calling.
2. Texting is a great way to avoid talking over the phone if you’re too busy to call.
3. Texting is a more private way of communication, so it’s easier to talk about personal things without feeling embarrassed or judged by people nearby.
4. Texting is an instant way of communicating without having to worry about what time zone your recipient may be in.
5. Texting is often cheap or even free (though the same can be said of calling if the caller has a generous minutes plan).

Texting vs calling: 5 reasons why calling is the better option

1. If someone does not respond immediately after you send a text, it can be easy for that person to accidentally ignore your messages or let them go unanswered. Radio silence can lead to misunderstandings or hurt feelings.
2. You can’t send a text message to anyone who doesn’t have a mobile phone (and that still applies to about 3% of people in the United States as of April 2021).
3. It can be difficult to read tone and attitude from text messages, as texting doesn’t provide as much non-verbal information as talking over the phone does.
4. Calling someone instead of texting them will allow you to have a more in-depth conversation and will be less likely to result in miscommunication.
5. Calling is also better for emergencies when you don’t have time for a text message.

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Study: “It’s surprisingly nice to hear you: Misunderstanding the impact of communication media can lead to suboptimal choices of how to connect with others”
Authors: Amit Kumar and Nicholas Epley
Published in: Journal of Experimental Psychology
Publication date: September 10, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000962
Photo by: by Andrea Piacquadio via Pexels