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Costly Traits and e-Collaboration: The Importance of Oral Speech in Electronic Knowledge Communication

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Evolutionary Psychology and Information Systems Research

Part of the book series: Integrated Series in Information Systems ((ISIS,volume 24))

Abstract

It is argued here that oral speech is a costly trait evolved by our human ancestors to enable effective knowledge communication. Costly traits are phenotypic traits that evolved in spite of imposing a fitness cost, often in the form of a survival handicap . In non-human animals, the classic example of costly trait is the peacock’s train , used by males to signal good health to females. This chapter argues that, because oral speech is a costly trait, it should be a particularly strong determinant of knowledge communication performance, an effect that generally applies to e-collaborative tasks performed by modern humans. The effects of oral speech support in e-collaborative tasks are discussed based on empirical studies and shown to be consistent with the notion that oral speech is a costly trait. Specifically, it is shown that the use of e-collaboration technologies that suppress the ability to employ oral speech, when knowledge communication is attempted, leads to the two following negative outcomes: (a) a dramatic decrease in communication fluency and (b) a significant increase in communication ambiguity. These effects are particularly acute in e-collaborative tasks of short duration.

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Acknowledgments

This chapter is a revised version of an article by the author published in 2009 in the journal Electronic Markets. A mathematical formalization of the key predictions of this chapter is presented in that article and has not been included here. The author discussed several of this chapter’s core biological and evolutionary ideas in a presentation at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society in Kyoto, Japan. The presentation argued, through a mathematical formalization based on the Price equation and the method of path analysis, that costly mate choice traits should be rare and particularly attractive to the members of the opposite sex. The author is grateful for the comments and questions from the audience at that presentation.

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  1. Division of International Business and Technology Studies, Texas A&M International University, 5201 University Boulevard, Laredo, TX, 78041, USA

    Ned Kock

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Correspondence to Ned Kock .

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  1. Dept. of MIS and Decision Science, Texas A & M International University, University Boulevard 5201, Laredo, 78041, USA

    Ned Kock

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Kock, N. (2010). Costly Traits and e-Collaboration: The Importance of Oral Speech in Electronic Knowledge Communication. In: Kock, N. (eds) Evolutionary Psychology and Information Systems Research. Integrated Series in Information Systems, vol 24. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6139-6_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6139-6_13

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-6138-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-6139-6

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