My NYU students are not going to like this because in general so many young people prefer texting over talking on the phone, so forgive me in advance. BUT, the best arguments are spoken and not typed. There’s a study for just about anything but this one is really fascinating.

The study in Nature Communications examined how the medium of communication influences disagreements concluding that voice or face-to-face rather than through written exchanges consistently reported better outcomes. Participants felt more understood, perceived less conflict, formed more favorable impressions of one another and were more likely to move toward common ground. These benefits were observed whether the conversation occurred in person, by telephone or by video, compared with text-based communication.

Most people expected the opposite — 84%  said they would rather handle a disagreement in writing, believing it would be easier and less confrontational. The actual conversations showed otherwise: spoken discussions produced more constructive interactions than written ones.

Every disagreement should not happen in person but when the goal is understanding rather than documentation, the medium itself can influence the outcome.

According to a UC Berkeley Haas summary of Juliana Schroeder’s research, “when the stakes are high, your voice—not your words alone—makes all the difference.”

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