Thanks:) Yes I agree there are clear drawbacks to just looking at lay data. Fwiw we don't analyze lay data in isolation. We analyzed the entire US code for indices of 'legalese' and then analyze their prevalence in participant responses. Imperfect ofc---could be fun to discuss ways to extend/improve

Even lawyers do not like legalese | PNAS Across modern civilization, societal norms and rules are established and communicated largely in the form of written laws. Despite their prevalence...

Thanks for discussing :) We did though---see separate paper in same journal featuring lawyer studies www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Btw the paper you're talking about technically centered around legislation. And analyzed the entire US Code (compared w/, e.g. science papers), not just lay behavior.