Scope of the “Output Format” Setting for Eloqua Contact Date Fields

To what extent does the output format defined for an Eloqua Contact Date Field apply?

It appears that the format displayed in the Eloqua Contact UI follows the user’s locale settings. If that’s the case, where exactly is the “Output Format” setting applied?
It seems to affect form field merges, but I’d like to understand the exact scope of where this setting takes effect.