kely to make people believe that someone who is e-mailing them is, among other things, trustworthy, eager to help others, and willing to admit to making mistakes. "If I want to show you that I always go out of my way to help people in trouble, what messages would I send to convey that?" asks Rabby. "In business, if I want to show that I'm compas- sionate, how would I do that?" Early results of Rabby's and Coho's research show that people generally develop favorable opinions of someone with whom they're communicating only via e-mail or instant messages. Rabby says it's easier to make a favorable impression in part because people can choose to present only positive infor- mation about themselves. Rabby recently divided students in his Communication Technology and Change classes into pairs and asked them to exchange five e-mail messages with their partners. In almost all of the cases, the students did not know each other and formed first impressions based on the e-mail messages and, some- times, instant messages. After they exchanged the e-mail messages, the stu- dents filled out surveys rating themselves and their partners in a variety of categories, such as whether they're likely to go out of their way to help INTERNET SIMULATOR someone in trouble and whether they practice what they preach. In most cases, the students gave their partners higher ratings than themselves. The students also reexamined e-mail messages written by their partners and highlighted specific phrases or sections that caused them to form opinions. In some cases, direct statements such as "I am independent" led to conclusions, whereas other opinions were based on more anecdotal evidence. One student wrote about how he quit a "crooked" sales job to keep his integrity, and another student mentioned that she soon would be helping her pregnant roommate care for a baby that was due in a few weeks. "E-mail communication has impacted SO much of our lives, but it's still a pretty understudied area," says Rabby. "We're now looking more closely at the mes