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The business world has been quick to embrace the internet not just as a source of information but also as a one of communication, with email, teleconferencing and blogs becoming commonplace. But given that communication is not just about informing people but increasingly about persuading them too, how effective are we at influencing others when a machine is involved in the process?

This is a question that intrigues many persuasion researchers. Take, for example, a study that looked at how effective email was at persuading others in business settings. Researchers found that, because email lacks some of the vital aspects of communication, such as voice tone and physical gestures, the true meaning of messages was often misunderstood. This fact alone might be enough to make email communications problematic but the researchers also found that senders of email are almost completely unaware that their messages might be misunderstood.

In one study, business communicators believed that almost 90 per cent of the people who they sent messages to would be able to correctly guess the tone and meaning of them. In reality, 37 per cent were unable to. The research suggested that because people can’t hear the inflection of the communicator’s voice it is harder to interpret a written communication. When the same message was communicated by voice rather than email, there was an improvement, but still some 26 per cent misunderstood the communication.

You might be thinking that these findings aren’t surprising, as studies often involve strangers who have no experience or history with one another. But the researchers considered this too and found that, regardless of whether people were close colleagues or had never interacted before, the results were exactly the same.

It turns out that electronic communications don’t just serve to increase misunderstanding, they can also encourage dishonesty. Researchers at three US business schools found that work colleagues were more likely to be dishonest with each other in online settings rather than in actual meetings due to the lack of a face-to-face interaction. A further study also showed that business teams cooperate less and act more self-servingly when they 'talk' online instead of face to face.

So while technology has its part to play in communications, to be optimally persuasive there is simply no substitute for the human touch. Whether that means walking to an office upstairs or jumping on a plane, personal persuasion is here to stay.