diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index f26bf901c..1b94d6511 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 # testthat (development version)
 
+* The `lifecycle_verbosity` global option is now preserved by
+  `test_that()` if already set. This makes it possible to set it
+  outside of `test_that()` blocks, so that it applies to a whole test
+  file.
+
 * Fixed a warning in R >=4.2.0 on Windows that occurred when using the C++
   testing infrastructure that testthat provides (#1672).
 
diff --git a/R/local.R b/R/local.R
index fed271428..b9876ce97 100644
--- a/R/local.R
+++ b/R/local.R
@@ -110,12 +110,19 @@ local_reproducible_output <- function(width = 80,
     cli.condition_width = Inf,
     cli.num_colors = if (crayon) 8L else 1L,
     useFancyQuotes = FALSE,
-    lifecycle_verbosity = "warning",
     OutDec = ".",
     rlang_interactive = FALSE,
     max.print = 99999,
     .local_envir = .env,
   )
+
+  if (is.null(peek_option("lifecycle_verbosity"))) {
+    withr::local_options(
+      .local_envir = .env,
+      lifecycle_verbosity = "warning"
+    )
+  }
+
   withr::local_envvar(RSTUDIO = NA, .local_envir = .env)
   withr::local_language(lang, .local_envir = .env)
   withr::local_collate("C", .local_envir = .env)
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-local.R b/tests/testthat/test-local.R
index d3d68ce90..3759acc79 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-local.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-local.R
@@ -39,3 +39,10 @@ test_that("can override translation of error messages", {
   local_reproducible_output(lang = "es")
   expect_error(mean[[1]], "objeto de tipo")
 })
+
+local({
+  local_options(lifecycle_verbosity = "quiet")
+  test_that("lifecycle verbosity is preserved", {
+    expect_equal(peek_option("lifecycle_verbosity"), "quiet")
+  })
+})