(EndPlay Staff Reports) - Need to send a bold message? Surprise – texting is a great option.

A new study found that texting is a good way to get candid messages to people, even in sensitive situations.

"The preliminary results of our study suggest that people are more likely to disclose sensitive information via text messages than in voice interviews," Fred Conrad, a cognitive psychologist and director of the Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, said in a news release .

Essentially, with texting you don't have the same amount of time and space to offer expanded answers or statements. A text is simple and more straightforward, and vague good enough answers are less likely, the researchers said.

The study, which received funds from the National Science Foundation, examined 600 people who used iPhones. Researchers recruited them through Craigslist, Amazon's Mechanical Turk and Google Ads, and were given iTunes Store awards for participating.

The study participants were more likely to give honest answers via text in response to questions such as these:

In a typical week, about how often do you exercise?

During the past 30 days, on how many days did you have five or more drinks on the same occasion?

"We're in the early stages of analyzing our findings," said fellow researcher Michael Schober, a psychology professor and dean of the graduate faculty at the New School for Social Research.

"But so far it seems that texting may reduce some respondents' tendency to shade the truth or to present themselves in the best possible light in an interview – even when they know it's a human interviewer they are communicating with via text."