How Informative and Persuasive is Simple Elite Communication?

In the past two decades, increasing levels of simplicity in political elite rhetoric have drawn both empirical interest and normative concern from political scientists. While conventional wisdom holds that politicians simplify their public communications because simplicity works, the way citizens respond to such messages has hardly been investigated. This study presents the results of two experiments testing the effects of simplicity on two major goals of elite communication: informing citizens and persuading them. Results show that simple rhetoric has lower informative value for citizens than complex rhetoric, regardless of the issue being addressed and the partisan identity of the speaker. In terms of persuasion, results point to a conditional effect. When a politician addresses a like-minded audience, simplicity sways public opinion. However, when addressing a polarized audience, simple rhetoric is ineffective.