What your email style says about you?

The way you engage with email- checking, reading, responding-tells a lot about you, according to researchers who believe that the patterns can be matched to bird-like behaviour.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow and the University of the West of Scotland examined different patterns and behaviours of emailing, and matched them to typical bird-like behaviours, according to a statement from the University of Glasgow.

Karen Renaud, senior lecturer in the School of Computing Science, said: "Email has rapidly become a vital business communication tool and a lot of people we spoke to say they would not be able to do their jobs without it."

She added: "However, many people have gripes about email. Some people find themselves checking email all the time, even during evenings, weekends and holidays, others complain about how other people behave when using email."

The researchers identified a total of 12 bird-like characteristics of email users, including: 

Compulsive Woodpecker: Can't resist reading email at all hours of the day and night.

Hibernating Poorwill: Reads email only occasionally so that senders can never rely on them.

Caterwauling Peacock: Broadcasts emails to all and sundry, claiming that people "need to know" when actually is just grandstanding.

Back-Covering Emu: Sends emails in order to be able to prove, at a later date, that the information was passed on.

Echoing Mynah: Acknowledges all emails. For example engages in exchange something like: "thanks", then "my pleasure", then "thanks again".

Boorish Parrot: Sends abusive or inappropriate emails and fails to understand why others get upset by them.

Night Owl: The midnight emailer, who fails to understand that others do wish to have "time out".

The researchers said there was one type of bird associated with perfect email manners: the robin. These people are admired for not allowing email to dictate their lives and making time to speak to people in person whenever they can, the statement added.

The research, carried out with Judith Ramsay at the University of the West of Scotland, is published in Interfaces, the quarterly magazine of the British Computer Society.