Perceived effectiveness of interpersonal persuasion strategies in computer-mediated communication

This paper investigates interpersonal persuasion strategies in computer-mediated communication (CMC), a topic that has received little prior attention. Significant differences were found in perceived effectiveness of asynchronous, text-based CMC vs. face-to-face communication (FTFC) for achieving interpersonal persuasion in general and for applying persuasion strategies of reward, punishment, logic, and emotion. Findings of the study indicate that different persuasion strategies are emphasized in CMC than in FTFC, implying that need to persuade is an important factor in choosing effective media for a given communication. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.