Monday, July 29, 2002		Feature

WHEN it comes to sending e-mails, personal touch is the best because the more persons the message is copied to, the less likely the recipients will reply.

E-mailing individuals separately, instead of in groups, is much more effective, according to scientists at the Technion technology institute in Haifa, Israel.

"If you’re an advertiser trying to get hits on a Website, or a secretary asking for a volunteer to bring a cake to Monday’s meeting, then using an automatic e-mail sent to many people might not be the best way to go," scientist Greg Barron told New Scientist magazine last week.

Barron and his colleagues suspected that people did not respond as well to automatic emails because they would assume that other recipients probably would.

To test their theory they set up a Yahoo! account for a fictitious student and sent an e-mail to 240 persons at Technion asking for information.

The e-mail was either addressed to an individual in the ‘To’ or with a group of four other persons.

Half of the multiple address recipients did not respond to the e-mail, compared to 36 of the single recipients. The personal e-mail also elicited more helpful replies.

Like bystanders at a crime scene, Barron said an individual is less likely to intervene if many other persons are present.

"In cyberspace, e-mail addresses constitute virtual bystanders and there can be a diffusion of responsibility," he said.