ALL CAPS, Tone, & Memory

Putting words in ALL CAPS can signal importance. However, it can also feel like shouting. Does formatting text in all caps boost memory at the cost of a harsher tone? We used a randomized experiment with 1,200 email readers to find out.

Big Words

Does using big words make you seem smarter? Or does it just make you seem stuck up? We put it to the test in a randomized controlled trial with 400 people.

Climate Change Denial

As evidence of human-caused climate change mounts, the debate on the science is giving way to the political, and now, the psychological. In this study, we examine how believing vs. denying climate change affects intelligence perceptions across party lines.

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.

Email Name

There's a professional trend with email that involves using your full name in your personal email address. Does doing so actually provide a professionalism boost? We put it to the test in an experiment with 400 email users.

Email Signature

Email signatures, the organizational details below one's name in an email, do more than convey contact info. They can also serve as a symbol of status or professionalism to signal trust or importance. But do email signatures really have such an effect? We conducted a psychology experiment to find out.

Exclamations in Emails

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. 

Green Texts: Android vs. iPhone

Pop culture suggests that "green texts" from non-Apple smartphones draw the ire of iPhone users. But do they really? We ran a randomized experiment with 133 iPhone users and 261 Android OS users to test whether those green texts actually hurt the sender's image.

Mac vs. PC Sophistication

Apple has spent decades building its brand through sleek, innovative product designs for which customers pay top-dollar. Psychology says such branding can affect how we think about ourselves. Can it also affect how others perceive us? We put it to the test with a head-to-head Mac vs. PC experiment measuring perceptions of users' sophistication.

Non-Native Speakers - Grammar Perceptions

Learning English is hard. Even native speakers make grammatical mistakes. But are non-native speakers judged more or less harshly for such errors, particularly in the workplace? The results of an experiment with 1,200 people suggest that gender may play a role.

Parentheses - Nuance or Nuisance

Parentheses provide supplemental details that (while potentially helpful) are not essential. Does including those details (and the parentheses enclosing them) boost informativeness? Or are they just annoying? We have the data in this 1,200-person experiment.

Semicolon Perceptions

Semicolons are rarely used. They're optional, and using them correctly requires specific grammatical knowledge. However, perhaps that makes users seem smarter; or perhaps it just signals arrogance. We put it to the test in an experiment with over 1,000 people. 

Slang

New-age acronyms and made-up meanings underpin the informal, yet exclusive lexicon of slang. It can provide meaning and identity to those who use it. But not all the world's a fan, fam. Our 400-person experiment reveals how the use of slang affects your image.

Statistics - Do They Persuade?

Can adding a statistic to support your claim convince others of its validity? We ran experiments across three contexts, including politics, business, and a college essay, measuring audience perceptions of claim believability and claim-maker competence.

There, Their, They're

One of the most common grammatical mistakes is mixing up there, their, and they're. Does it make you seem less smart in the eyes of your peers? To find out, we conducted an experiment with 1,200 people in the contexts of social media and work.

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.