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.