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Messages Services Inc. Health information at your fingertips Texting Increases Truthfulness: Getting More Candid Responses from Your Priority Populations Text messaging is a surprisingly good way to get candid responses to sensitive questions, according to a new study to be presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. The preliminary results of our study suggest that people are more likely to disclose sensitive information via text messages than in voice interviews, says Fred Conrad, a cognitive psychologist and Director of the Program Survey Methodology at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR). This is sort of surprising, says Conrad, since many people thought that texting woulddecrease the likelihood of disclosing sensitive information because it creates a persistent, visual record of questions and answers that others might see on your phone and in the cloud. With text, the researchers also found that people were less likely to engage in satisficing a survey industry term referring to the common practice of giving good enough, easy answers, like rounding to multiples of 10 in numerical responses, for example. We believe people give more precise answers via texting because theres just not the time pressure in a largely asynchronous mode like text that there is in phone interviews, says Conrad. As a result, respondents are able to take longer to arrive at more accurate answers. According to Schober and Conrad, changes in communication patterns and their impact on the survey industry prompted the study. About one in five U.S. households only use cell phones and no longer have landline phones. These households are typically not surveyed even though cell-only households tend to differ in important ways from households with landline phones. More people are using text messages on mobile phones, with texting now the preferred form of communication among many people in their teens and 20s in the U.S. Texting is extremely common among all age groups in many Asian and European nations. Conrad and Schober are also finding that people are more likely to provide thoughtful and honest responses via text messages even when theyre in busy, distracting environments. This is the case even though people are more likely to be multitasking shopping or walking, for example when theyre answering questions by text than when theyre being interviewed by voice. In EMS texting program evaluations, completed under IRB protocols, researchers have arrived at similar results. Individuals contacting crisis centers via text message are more likely to reveal difficult components about their emotions, and will do so at earlier intervals in the conversation. Text lends to a "Cliffs Notes" approach to

Educational Messages Services Inc. Health information at your fingertips getting help. Helpline specialists report that texters will often present with more severe issues than those that make voice calls. And more often than not the person texting the helpline will discover that they are able to drill down on their core issues faster than through a face-to-face or voice encounter. As one crisis center volunteer in California identified, "there seems to be a cut-to-the-chase mentality with texting that we don't find in other communication channels." Whats more, it's not just youth texting helplines anymore. We're seeing the texting populations expand into young adults, and now even older adults. There's a higher level of intimacy and directness that people are able to achieve with text unlike other forms of communication. Talking about your emotions has always been difficult for many people. Real or imagined, the reality is, text removes these common barriers so that people are able to divulge information without the fear of being judged or ridiculed for expressing their feelings. Through sms, crisis centers can reach more individuals and save more lives by adopting this new communication channel. It's also imperative public health funding allocate more resources to support infrastructure upgrades like texting services for hotlines. The numbers don't lie. For many, texting is their preferred method of communication. Link to full article: OMG! Texting ups truthfulness, new iPhone study suggests If you have a question about this article or would like to learn more about texting services call 805.653.6000 or email: jonathan@emsmail.org You can also text INFO to 898211 (standard msg&data rates may apply, text HELP for help, text STOP to cancel)
Educational Message Services Inc. (EMS) has over 20 years experience developing public health programs using cutting-edge, multi-media tools and strategies for priority populations throughout the nation. PreventionPays Text Message Services provide two-way crisis support to hotlines and helplines, I&R and disaster alerts to 211s, and health text-ucation programs for government and state health departments like First 5, and WIC. The EMS team is uniquely skilled at improving communication strategies and cultivating creative alliances to improve prevention service delivery.

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