Welcome to Unwritten's February blog event! Of course, this is the month of love, so I wanted to celebrate that theme as I've done in year's past. But this year, I've decided to add a scientific spin to it. All month long, talented authors from several genres will write about some aspect of love from their books as it relates to science. It could be social, psychological, biological, or anything in between. Our blog event is sponsored by "HMC by Kate", a fabulous independent jewelry crafter. Kate's giving away one of her very beautiful necklaces that I think fits our theme perfectly. She's also offering everyone who stops in a 10% discount on any item from her Etsy store. Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post and check out her lovely offerings! Without further ado, please welcome our guest author:
Can
Love Come Through the Mail?
Proving that Mailed Letters Create More Positive Reaction than Emailed Letters
By
D. G. Driver, author of Passing Notes
“But I really want to
see her.”
Letter first.
“How should I give it
to her?”
Mail is best. It is a thrill to receive mail.
“Mail is slow. We call
it snail mail these days for a reason. That’ll take days. Can’t I just slip it
into her locker?”
No. Mail it. Heed my
words and learn.
In my Young Adult novella, Passing
Notes, Mark is in love with a girl that is smart and beautiful and hasn’t
paid him a bit of attention in all the years he’s adored her – until now. Only,
he doesn’t have any flare for romance and all the texts and emails he sends to
her backfire. Suddenly he begins to find notes advising him on how to write a
love letter: it must be on nice stationery, in cursive, and sent through the
real mail. Why? This mysterious teacher knows it will get the best result.
It turns out that Mark’s ghostly helper is right. Dr. Simon Moore, Chartered Psychologist at
the British Psychological Society, conducted a study on the psychological
impact of letters verses email. There wasn’t a single instance in the study
where an emailed message got a more favorable response than a hand-written,
mailed letter. Some of things discovered were that participants in the study
felt that hand-written letters were more personal and that they read the
physical letters with more attention rather than scanning an email. “15% the participants stated they would
definitely read through all of their emails carefully, while 85% said they
would definitely read letters more carefully. Interestingly a whopping 95% of
the participants rated letters as being ‘more real’ and 80% of them thought
letters offered a better chance of persuading someone of something.” (1)
In
another study (2005), it was proven that people felt that physical letters were
more trustworthy and polite. The effort of taking time to write a note by hand,
fold it, put it in an envelope, address and stamp it and then drop it in a
mailbox was considered to be more earnest. On the other hand, the ease of email
and something called the “online disinhibition effect” seemed to make
dishonesty or rude comments more likely to occur. A study done in 2010 found
that people considered email to be more like “chatting”, which resulted in
emails coming across as less sincere. Recipients of emailed letters said they
felt “emotionally distant” as compared to physical letters. Also, emails can be
sent impulsively, preventing the author from taking the time to make sure the
words written were the words intended. Writing a letter by hand allows the
sender time to choose words more carefully and weigh the value in mailing it.
And what does this mean for love letters, specifically? In an article
for Psychology Today, Aaron Ben-Zeév Ph.D.
wrote, “It is often easier to describe your heart in writing… letters
can be reread again and again and thereby enhance romantic responses.”(2) So,
I’m pretty sure he’d agree with Mark’s love letter tutor in my book.
I found articles on this topic from several major
periodicals, including the Wall Street
Journal and Forbes Magazine,
leading me to believe that letter writing is still important to a lot of people
and not something to let fall away. So, here’s your homework after reading this
highly scientific and educational post: read Passing Notes for fun, and when you’re done, write a sweet letter
to someone (lover, friend, family) and send it by mail. See if all these
psychologists (and the ghost from my book) are correct, and enjoy the response
you get in return.
(1) http://www.avery.co.uk/vgnfiles/OP/en_gb/Projects%20&%20Ideas/Articles/Love%20Letters/love_letters_report.pdf “A Study Comparing the Psychological Impact of Sending and Receiving
Letters v. Emails”
(2) https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-the-name-love/201112/falling-in-love-through-writing
“Falling in Love Through
Writing” by Aaron
Ben-Zeév Ph.D., Psychology
Today
****
D.
G. Driver is a member of SCBWI and lives in Nashville. She sold her first story
20 years ago and is amazed at how fast time has flown since then. As Donna
Getzinger, she has had several critically acclaimed and award-winning
nonfiction books published . In 2014 she changed her name to D. G. Driver and
had her first young adult novel, Cry
of the Sea, published by Fire and Ice Young Adult Books. She also
had a story published in the pirate anthology A Tall Ship, A Star, and Plunder. Passing Notes is her 2nd
book with Fire and Ice, and later this year her middle grade novel No One Needed to Know will
be published by Schoolwide Inc.
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/505480
ENTER TO WIN!
This beautiful handmade necklace from HMC by KATE
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