We’ve all witnessed an email flame war - those escalating email exchanges that raise everyone’s blood pressure without actually solving anything. Now Wired cites research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that tries to explain the phenomenon.

I’ve only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they’ve correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.

In other words, the scientist and their student lab rats reckon that email recipients are at fault for misinterpreting the tone of an email and wilfully overestimating their ability to get it right.

It’s true that we don’t read emails the way we read love letters, jokes or placards at protest rallies. But we are pretty good at guessing the tone of these other writings. Why? Context helps but the truth is that they are written differently.

I think that Wired gets closer to the truth at the end of the article:

People write absolutely, incredibly stupid things in company e-mails

If you want to avoid flame wars, write better and don’t say stupid things. If you get an email that gets your goat, ask yourself if retaliating will actual help.