It’s well known that e-mails are a source of misinterpretation and miscommunication because they lack nonverbal and behavioral cues. However, two new studies at Lehigh University reveal that e-mail is the most deceptive form of communication in the workplace.

Perhaps more surprising, though, is the finding that people feel justified in lying when using e-mail.

MBA students were given $89 to divide between themselves and a fictional party, who knew only that the amount of money to be divided was between $5 and $100. The students sent e-mails to the fictional parties stating the amount of money to be divided and how much the other party would get. However, the students using e-mail lied 92 percent of the time about the total amount being divided, while students who used pen and paper lied only 64 percent of the time.

In another study in which the students were more familiar with whom they were e-mailing, researchers wondered whether the familiarity would reduce the e-mailers’ impulse to lie. But the lies continued at about the same rate.

“These findings are consistent with our other work that shows that e-mail communication decreases the amount of trust and cooperation we see in professional group work, and increases the negativity in performance evaluations, all as opposed to pen-and-paper systems,” says researcher Terri Kurtzberg.

“People seem to feel more justified in acting in self-serving ways when typing as opposed to writing.”