A researcher at Cornell has found that people are more likely to lie while talking on the telephone than in email.

Lies were told in 14 percent of emails, 21 percent of instant messages, 27 percent of face-to-face contact - and a whopping 37 percent of telephone calls.

The findings are a surprise, because emailers would normally be considered to be the most persistent liars, given the detachment of the Internet.

Hancock suggests that two factors come into play when people tell a whopper - whether the communication is instant, and whether they are being recorded.

They may be discouraged from telling lies in an email, because this message is on the record and the sender can be held to account.

Reminds me of what Eliot Spitzer said at RealTime Miami last year: "Never put it in an email." (You can even download a poster referring to that.)