Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Department of Economics, Mathematics and Statistics, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK.
Nat Hum Behav. 2024 Feb;8(2):300-310. doi: 10.1038/s41562-023-01761-z. Epub 2023 Nov 23.
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 researcher and practitioner predictions, formal government communications are more effective at influencing resident behaviour than informal government communications. In exploring mechanisms, we show that formality operates as a heuristic for credibility and importance. Recipients view the source of a formal letter as more competent and trustworthy, and view the request itself as more important to take action on, despite no evidence of change in comprehension or in perceived ease of taking action. These findings have immediate implications for government communicators and open the door for a renewed focus on how the design and presentation of information impacts behaviour.
本文记录了政府沟通中存在的“形式效应”。通过三个不同政策背景下的在线研究和三个现场实验（总计 N=67632），我们表明，与研究人员和从业者的预测相反，正式的政府沟通在影响居民行为方面比非正式的政府沟通更有效。在探索机制的过程中，我们表明形式主义是一种可信度和重要性的启发式。收件人认为正式信件的来源更有能力和值得信赖，并且认为请求本身更重要，需要采取行动，尽管没有证据表明理解或采取行动的容易程度有所改变。这些发现对政府沟通者具有直接的意义，并为重新关注信息的设计和呈现方式如何影响行为开辟了道路。
