[1][2][3][4] Unlike the Amish, the conservative Dunkards, or Old Order Mennonites, they do not wear plain clothing, and can fight in wars.

The tourism industry and mainstream media often erroneously attribute such contributions to the more conservative Plain Dutch, though they would reject these aspects of their more worldly Fancy counterparts.

But since the two World Wars and the subsequent suppression of the German language in the US, as well as socioeconomic trends generally, there was substantial pressure on the Pennsylvania Dutchmen to assimilate.

This fact contributes to the widespread misunderstanding in the 21st century whereby the term Pennsylvania Dutch is misinterpreted to be synonymous with the Plain Folk.

[6] As the descendants of Palatines,[7] Fancy Dutch people were mostly from Lutheran and Reformed church congregations (non-sectarians), as well as Roman Catholics.

The adjectives Fancy and Gay similarly denoted contrast with plain practices, although frugality and unostentatiousness were in fact prevalent among most Church Dutch as well.

Anglo-Americans created the stereotypes of "the stubborn Dutchman" or "the dumb Dutchman", and made Pennsylvania Dutch the butt of ethnic jokes in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, though these stereotypes were never specific to the Plain Folk; most of the Pennsylvania Dutch people in those centuries were Church people.

"[10]The Pennsylvania Dutch had a strong dislike for New England, and to them the term "Yankee" became synonymous with "a cheat."

In the Province of Pennsylvania, Palatines lived between Iroquois settlements and the two peoples "communicated, drank, worked, worshipped and traded together, negotiated over land use and borders, and conducted their diplomacy separate from the colonial governments".