Original, Practical, Rigorous

Communication Research

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Insights for ​Your Words

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Original communication studies on how ​words, grammar, formatting, and non-verbal behavior affect audience outcomes.

Practical Tips

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We test conventional wisdom and discover new tips and strategies to help you write effectively, speak powerfully, and convey the best image of yourself to others.

Scientific Methods

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Our award-winning, Harvard-trained research team uses randomized controlled trials and other rigorous methods to ascertain the truth about what works and what doesn't.

10 Tips for Better Emails

RESEARCH REPORT

We conducted 10 studies on the psychological effects of modern email practices.  Our findings reveal how word choice, text formatting, and writing styles influence your audiences' perceptions of your tone, warmth, intelligence, and trust, along with how well recipients remember the information you send.

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ABOUT US

Award-winning, Harvard-trained social psychology researchers with over 10 years of experience in communication research.

TOPICS

A carefully curated set of communication topics, selected by you and rigorously researched by us.

Popular Studies

Our most viewed findings

Bulleted Lists & Memory

How can you make your writing more memorable? Whether it's an important email, presentation, or grocery list, you want your readers to remember what you wrote. Is a bulleted list the silver bullet?

ChatGPT Disclosure

Content creators are covertly using generative AI to produce written content. But disclosure regulation is on the horizon. In this experiment with 1,200 readers, we tested how crediting ChatGPT affects perceptions of the information and the content creator.

Coffee: Black vs. Milk

Most U.S. adults drink coffee. So much, in fact, that the science of coffee is percolating. But what about the psychology? In this experiment, we tested whether drinking coffee black or with milk affects how warm and competent we seem to our colleagues.

Emails & Exclamation Marks

If you use exclamation marks in work emails, you may wonder how it affects your readers' perceptions of you. Do gender or age matter? We conducted an email experiment to find out. 

Emoji Use

Across social media, emails, and other digital mediums, people are using emojis more than ever before. But how does it affect your image? Do contexts or reader differences matter? We conducted a randomized experiment with 1,200 people to find out.

Typos

We all make mistakes, especially when writing or typing. But making it a habit may affect your image. According to our workplace research study, typos in emails significantly affect how smart, likable, and trustworthy you seem.