“Send this to everyone you care about”

Written on July 16, 2005 by David C. Sarnacki

The New York Times highlights an Illinois graduate student’s explanation for electronic chain letters.

Dan Mitchell writes (excerpt):
[Benjamin Gross] “says forwarding e-mails plays a vital role in constructing and maintaining modern social ties, despite the phenomenon receiving scant attention from social scientists.”

But, Mr. Gross writes in a paper he plans to release this month, if e-mail users are “consistently wrong about what content is of actual interest to recipients, their reputation may drop in the implicit system people must apply” to prioritize their e-mail.

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