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.

Bold Text, Tone, & Memory

When sending emails, can bolding the key details make them easier to recall? If so, does it make other info less memorable? And how does it affect your perceived tone? We put all of these questions to the test in an email experiment.

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 an novel experiment with 400 people.

Bulleted Lists & Memory

How can you get people to remember the important information from your emails? We tested whether bulleted lists can help boost recall of key details in a written, digital format.

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.

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 investigate.

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. 

"I" Sentences

Starting each sentence with the word "I" is conventionally discouraged. Some think it can make you look self-centered, cold, or unoriginal. But in a randomized experiment with 1,200 email readers and social media post viewers, we find different results.

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.

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 experiment reveals how the use of slang affects your image.

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.