diff --git a/R/params.R b/R/params.R
index 1b0f64f..d4deb7f 100644
--- a/R/params.R
+++ b/R/params.R
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@
 #' @param nas A flag specifying whether to also fill missing values.
 #' @param parameters A character vector (or NULL) of the parameters to subset by.
 #' @param iterations An integer vector (or NULL) of the iterations to subset by.
-#' @param simplify A flag specifying whether to drop sd and zscore columns.
+#' @param simplify A flag specifying whether to drop the sd and zscore
+#'   columns. `simplify = FALSE` is deprecated.
 #' @param directional_information A flag specifying whether the svalue column
 #' should be calculated using [extras::directional_information()] instead of
 #' [extras::svalue()].
diff --git a/R/tidy.R b/R/tidy.R
index fc9cfa1..f025ec3 100644
--- a/R/tidy.R
+++ b/R/tidy.R
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ warn_default_directional_information <- function(
 #' @export
 tidy.mcmc <- function(
   x,
-  simplify = FALSE,
+  simplify = TRUE,
   directional_information = FALSE,
   ...
 ) {
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ tidy.mcmc <- function(
 #' @export
 tidy.mcmc.list <- function(
   x,
-  simplify = FALSE,
+  simplify = TRUE,
   directional_information = FALSE,
   ...
 ) {
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ tidy.mcmc.list <- function(
 #' ), simplify = TRUE, directional_information = TRUE)
 tidy.nlists <- function(
   x,
-  simplify = FALSE,
+  simplify = TRUE,
   directional_information = FALSE,
   ...
 ) {
diff --git a/man/params.Rd b/man/params.Rd
index 6b8ef81..510ed76 100644
--- a/man/params.Rd
+++ b/man/params.Rd
@@ -35,7 +35,8 @@ for each term element.}
 
 \item{iterations}{An integer vector (or NULL) of the iterations to subset by.}
 
-\item{simplify}{A flag specifying whether to drop sd and zscore columns.}
+\item{simplify}{A flag specifying whether to drop the sd and zscore
+columns. \code{simplify = FALSE} is deprecated.}
 
 \item{directional_information}{A flag specifying whether the svalue column
 should be calculated using \code{\link[extras:directional_information]{extras::directional_information()}} instead of
diff --git a/man/tidy.mcmc.Rd b/man/tidy.mcmc.Rd
index 125869d..bfd9382 100644
--- a/man/tidy.mcmc.Rd
+++ b/man/tidy.mcmc.Rd
@@ -4,12 +4,13 @@
 \alias{tidy.mcmc}
 \title{Turn an object into a tidy tibble}
 \usage{
-\method{tidy}{mcmc}(x, simplify = FALSE, directional_information = FALSE, ...)
+\method{tidy}{mcmc}(x, simplify = TRUE, directional_information = FALSE, ...)
 }
 \arguments{
 \item{x}{An object.}
 
-\item{simplify}{A flag specifying whether to drop sd and zscore columns.}
+\item{simplify}{A flag specifying whether to drop the sd and zscore
+columns. \code{simplify = FALSE} is deprecated.}
 
 \item{directional_information}{A flag specifying whether the svalue column
 should be calculated using \code{\link[extras:directional_information]{extras::directional_information()}} instead of
diff --git a/man/tidy.mcmc.list.Rd b/man/tidy.mcmc.list.Rd
index 673cba2..1ae48e3 100644
--- a/man/tidy.mcmc.list.Rd
+++ b/man/tidy.mcmc.list.Rd
@@ -4,12 +4,13 @@
 \alias{tidy.mcmc.list}
 \title{Turn an object into a tidy tibble}
 \usage{
-\method{tidy}{mcmc.list}(x, simplify = FALSE, directional_information = FALSE, ...)
+\method{tidy}{mcmc.list}(x, simplify = TRUE, directional_information = FALSE, ...)
 }
 \arguments{
 \item{x}{An object.}
 
-\item{simplify}{A flag specifying whether to drop sd and zscore columns.}
+\item{simplify}{A flag specifying whether to drop the sd and zscore
+columns. \code{simplify = FALSE} is deprecated.}
 
 \item{directional_information}{A flag specifying whether the svalue column
 should be calculated using \code{\link[extras:directional_information]{extras::directional_information()}} instead of
diff --git a/man/tidy.nlists.Rd b/man/tidy.nlists.Rd
index ef2b90a..2d90631 100644
--- a/man/tidy.nlists.Rd
+++ b/man/tidy.nlists.Rd
@@ -4,12 +4,13 @@
 \alias{tidy.nlists}
 \title{Turn an object into a tidy tibble}
 \usage{
-\method{tidy}{nlists}(x, simplify = FALSE, directional_information = FALSE, ...)
+\method{tidy}{nlists}(x, simplify = TRUE, directional_information = FALSE, ...)
 }
 \arguments{
 \item{x}{An object.}
 
-\item{simplify}{A flag specifying whether to drop sd and zscore columns.}
+\item{simplify}{A flag specifying whether to drop the sd and zscore
+columns. \code{simplify = FALSE} is deprecated.}
 
 \item{directional_information}{A flag specifying whether the svalue column
 should be calculated using \code{\link[extras:directional_information]{extras::directional_information()}} instead of
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-tidy.R b/tests/testthat/test-tidy.R
index 880d3b9..dce2d5e 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-tidy.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-tidy.R
@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 test_that("tidy.nlists", {
   rlang::local_options(lifecycle_verbosity = "quiet")
 
-  lifecycle::expect_deprecated(tidy(nlists(), directional_information = FALSE))
+  lifecycle::expect_deprecated(
+    tidy(nlists(), simplify = FALSE, directional_information = FALSE)
+  )
 
   expect_identical(
-    tidy(nlists()),
+    tidy(nlists(), simplify = FALSE),
     structure(
       list(
         term = structure(
@@ -30,7 +32,7 @@ test_that("tidy.nlists", {
     )
   )
   expect_equal(
-    tidy(nlists(nlist())),
+    tidy(nlists(nlist()), simplify = FALSE),
     tibble::tibble(
       term = term(x = 0),
       estimate = numeric(0),
@@ -42,7 +44,7 @@ test_that("tidy.nlists", {
     )
   )
   expect_identical(
-    tidy(nlists(nlist(x = 2))),
+    tidy(nlists(nlist(x = 2)), simplify = FALSE),
     tibble::tibble(
       term = term("x"),
       estimate = 2,
@@ -54,7 +56,7 @@ test_that("tidy.nlists", {
     )
   )
   expect_identical(
-    tidy(nlists(nlist(x = 2:4))),
+    tidy(nlists(nlist(x = 2:4)), simplify = FALSE),
     tibble::tibble(
       term = term(x = 3),
       estimate = c(2, 3, 4),
@@ -74,7 +76,7 @@ test_that("tidy.nlists", {
     )
   )
   expect_identical(
-    tidy(nlists(nlist(y = 1, s = 1:2))),
+    tidy(nlists(nlist(y = 1, s = 1:2)), simplify = FALSE),
     tibble::tibble(
       term = term("y", s = 2),
       estimate = c(1, 1, 2),
@@ -94,7 +96,10 @@ test_that("tidy.nlists", {
     )
   )
   expect_equal(
-    tidy(nlists(nlist(x = 1, y = 1:2), nlist(x = 1, y = 3:4))),
+    tidy(
+      nlists(nlist(x = 1, y = 1:2), nlist(x = 1, y = 3:4)),
+      simplify = FALSE
+    ),
     tibble::tibble(
       term = term("x" = 1, y = 2),
       estimate = c(1, 2, 3),
@@ -115,6 +120,18 @@ test_that("tidy.nlists", {
   )
 })
 
+test_that("tidy.nlists default is simplify = TRUE", {
+  rlang::local_options(lifecycle_verbosity = "quiet")
+  expect_identical(
+    tidy(nlists(nlist(x = 2))),
+    tidy(nlists(nlist(x = 2)), simplify = TRUE, directional_information = FALSE)
+  )
+  expect_identical(
+    colnames(tidy(nlists(nlist(x = 2)))),
+    c("term", "estimate", "lower", "upper", "svalue")
+  )
+})
+
 test_that("tidy.nlists", {
   expect_identical(
     tidy(nlists(), simplify = TRUE, directional_information = FALSE),