Answer:
A meta-analysis.
Advantageous outcomes of a face-to-face relationship are based on the relationship between the partners. Therefore, this relationship must also be considered when one investigates which outcomes are more or less advantageous. The aim of this meta-analysis was to find which outcomes are more beneficial for face-to-face communication as compared with other communication methods. Furthermore, we examined whether advantages depend on several variables such as type of relationship (friends, colleagues, relatives, romantic partners, and so forth) or the communication method (face-to-face, written, video, or audio). A total of 4,200 participants (1,834 female, 2,466 male) were included from 33 published articles and presented at a total of 32 communication methods and relationship types. The dependent variable was the relationship outcome which is defined as the change in a relationship's quality, e.g., friendship, marital satisfaction, loneliness. Participants reported more beneficial effects in face-to-face communication as compared with other communication methods. Moreover, we found that different communication methods produced different effects: face-to-face, written, and video communication methods produced more beneficial outcomes than audio communication, but audio communication was still better than telephone and computer-mediated communication methods. Furthermore, we found that the relationship outcome depended on type of relationship (friend, colleague, relative, romantic partner) and that face-to-face communication was more beneficial than all other communication methods for all type of relationships. These findings have important implications for psychotherapeutic and psychological interventions with adults, and also for educational, workplace, and social communication.
