Why You’re More Deferential to Peers than the Boss (in Your Emails)

In emails, employees tend to show much more deference — using hedges and disclaimers such as “This may be a bad idea, but…” — to people at their own level than to higher-ranking employees, according to a study that included an analysis of hundreds of corporate emails. Employees load their messages to peers with deferential and polite language in order to avoid suggesting that they’re trying to inflate their own status, say the researchers, who were led by Alison R. Fragale of the University of North Carolina. By contrast, employees’ emails to bosses contain relatively few deferential phrases.