Utrecht scientists: simple speech from the throne more appreciated and better for the king

In an online experiment, a hundred subjects listened to the original, and a hundred others heard the rewrite. The rewrite was not only better understood, they also found it less distant and still solemn enough. “I always think about Obama too,” says Lentz. “He could give very solemn, important speeches, which everyone found extremely understandable. Solemnity depends on all kinds of factors and language use is one of them, but clarity of language is not.”