This paper documents the existence of a “Formality Effect” in government communications. Across three online studies and three field experiments in different policy contexts (total N = 67,632), we show that, contrary to scholar and practitioner predictions, formal government communications...

"When Gene Sperling was in charge of coordinating the shaping and execution of the US government's economic policy in the Obama White House, he found himself surprised and dismayed when serious people in Washington worried out loud to him that the Obama focus on health care was a distraction...