Individuals are more likely to support the same operation described by a "senior government official" than when it is described by a "David S. Cohen" from the CIA because the former signals success to the public, and the public infers success from the former. 4/4

I also find in my experiments that unattributable communication can boost support for drone strikes by 5 percentage points compared to attributable communication. Note that both types of communication concern the same operation. 3/4

The paper includes both text analysis and survey experiments. I first show that unattributable communication (type of quasi-secrecy) about drone strikes is as prevalent as attributable communication. Think of all the quotes by "senior government officials speaking on the condition of anonymity." 2/4