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2007 February 27th

Survey Shows Most Adults Want Tough Talks Face to Face

One in three desire email buffer for reconnecting with lost loves

SEATTLE-February 27, 2007

According to a recent survey of 2,395 U.S. adults sponsored by WhitePages.com and conducted by Harris Interactive®, a large majority of adults prefer in-person discussions when addressing three specific topics: admitting error, giving negative news and expressing anger with another person. Dubbed the "Psychology of Making Contact," the survey shows that despite the U.S. culture being dominated by online social networking, text messaging and growing addiction to BlackBerrys, consumers know nothing beats looking another person in the eye when broaching touchy topics.

The Psychology of Making Contact survey shows an in-person discussion is the preferred method of interaction


These results reinforce adults' belief that face-to-face conversations are not likely to be misunderstood, with 63 percent reporting them as "very/somewhat difficult" to misinterpret. On the other hand, email conversations are regarded as very likely to be misunderstood, with 80 percent labeling them "very/somewhat easy" to misinterpret. Phone conversations are largely split, with 47 percent of adults regarding them as "very/somewhat difficult" to misinterpret. The remaining 53 percent view them as "very/somewhat easy" to misinterpret.

Love American Style

 Despite recent high-profile celebrity break-ups communicated via text or voicemail message, such as Britney Spears reportedly texting the news to K-Fed and Jessica Simpson reportedly being dumped by Adam Levine via text, the vast majority of U.S. adults prefer to conduct relationship-changing conversations face to face. Survey results reveal that:

• Only 6 percent prefer breaking up with someone over the phone, trailed by those who prefer ending relationships by email and by letter, which are both tied at 2 percent
• Similarly, 7 percent prefer getting dumped over the phone, trailed by those who prefer receiving the news by email and by letter, tied at 2 percent

Customers who market to other businesses can also leverage the Profile Your List product by adding business profile information to a pre-existing list.


Adults are decidedly fragmented when it comes to connecting with a long-lost love, with email exchange leading among 32 percent of adults. Conversations by telephone and in-person discussion are tied at 23 percent each, and an old-fashioned letter is favored by 19 percent.

"From the 130 million people searches WhitePages.com powers each month and the constant consumer feedback we receive, we know that people use our site to maintain relationships with family, friends and business associates," said Max Bardon, president and chief operating officer of WhitePages.com. "This survey shows the importance of personal interaction for sensitive matters and allows us to better understand the people who use WhitePages.com on a daily basis."

Other Findings

 The survey also asked consumers to rank what personal information people are most comfortable sharing.


WhitePages.com conducted the survey to better understand consumers, for whom they provide a variety of methods to make contact by enabling convenient access to phone numbers, mailing addresses and email addresses. WhitePages.com provides the richest source of contact information available on the Internet today, including more than 150 million U.S. and Canadian residential, business and email listings. WhitePages.com People Search leverages this powerful proprietary database coupled with targeted third-party content to give consumers a holistic method of accessing people-specific information through one unified search experience. With nearly 22 million unique users per month who conduct on average more than 130 million monthly searches, WhitePages.com leads the growing people search category, and is the 39th most trafficked Website according to comScore Media Metrix.

About the Survey
Harris Interactive fielded the online survey on behalf of WhitePages.com between January 3 and January 5, 2007 among 2,395 U.S. adults 18 years of age or older. Figures for region, age within gender, education, household income and race/ethnicity were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. The data were also weighted to be representative of the online population of U.S. adults on the basis of Internet usage (hours per week) and connection type.

With a pure probability sample of 2,395 adults one could say with a ninety-five percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points. Sampling error for sub samples is higher and varies. However, that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

About Harris Interactive®
Harris Interactive is the 12th largest and fastest-growing market research firm in the world. The company provides innovative research, insights and strategic advice to help its clients make more confident decisions which lead to measurable and enduring improvements in performance. Harris Interactive is widely known for The Harris Poll, one of the longest running, independent opinion polls and for pioneering online market research methods. The company has built what it believes to be the world's largest panel of survey respondents, the Harris Poll Online. Harris Interactive serves clients worldwide through its United States, Europe and Asia offices, its wholly-owned subsidiary Novatris in France and through a global network of independent market research firms. The service bureau, HISB, provides its market research industry clients with mixed-mode data collection, panel development services as well as syndicated and tracking research consultation. More information about Harris Interactive may be obtained at www.harrisinteractive.com.

About WhitePages.com
WhitePages.com, a privately held company based in Seattle, is the most trusted and comprehensive source for consumers to quickly and easily find relevant, accurate contact information in North America. The company's network of sites include WhitePages.com (www.whitepages.com), WhitePages.ca (www.whitepages.ca), 411.com (www.411.com), Address.com (www.address.com), PhoneNumber.com (www.phonenumber.com), and its 1,300 partner sites including Superpages.com, YellowPages.com and Canada411. The on-the-go user can also access contact information via cell phone, Blackberrys and other web-enabled mobile devices.

For more information, press only:

John Lusk
WhitePages

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