YOU need driving directions. Do you pick up the phone or shoot your buddies an email?
Amid an increasing range of text-based options such as email and text messaging, Herbert Clark and colleagues at Stanford University in California wondered if there were still times when people prefer good old-fashioned talk. They presented 69 university students with two scenarios – giving a pal driving directions and revising a paper with two other people – and asked which mode of communication they would use.
With directions, 62 per cent said speech, because it’s important to be able to answer questions from the driver, which…
