Fonts have stronger psychological effects than most people probably realize. Recently, a font was created to help those with dyslexia read webpages. And now font-research has found its way into politics. Turns out, hard-to-read fonts make people more moderate.

Two studies published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology showed that a change in font can change people's opinions, because it takes longer for them to process information.

The first study involved a political argument on capital punishment, written in a difficult-to-read font. Those who read an easier font merely reinforced their standing biases, be it liberal or conservative. But those with a more challenging font were far less polarized on the piece.

The second study was centered around a mock trial. Folks were given documents that praised or criticized the behavior of a defendant before the trial. Those given negative insight into the defendant's behavior were more like to convict him and vice-versa.

As you probably guessed, once given a more difficult font, these biases dried up.

The reason is simple: confirmation bias disappears when one has to spend a greater amount of time considering what information he is processing. A difficult font forces people to spend more time on the information, thus the bias disappears.

Via Phys Org