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If it’s easy to read, it’s easy features can easily lead us astray in our
effort estimates.
For example, consider the identical
to do, pretty, good, and true exercise instructions shown (in part) in
Figure 1. When they were presented in
an easy-to-read print font (Arial), readers
assumed that the exercise would take 8.2
Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz describe some fascinating findings on how minutes to complete; but when they were
fluency affects judgement, choice and processing style presented in a difficult-to-read print font,
readers assumed it would take nearly twice
as long, a full 15.1 minutes (Song &
Thinking can feel easy or difficult. uppose you ponder whether a new Schwarz, 2008b). They also thought that
But what effect does the ease or
difficulty of reading a text have on
information processing? Can
S exercise routine is suitable for you
or whether a statement like ‘Orsono
is a city in Chile’ is true or false. What
the exercise would flow quite naturally
when the font was easy to read, but feared
that it would drag on when it was difficult
something as seemingly irrelevant would your decision be based on? Most to read. Given these impressions, they
as the print font in which psychological theories suggest that you were more willing to incorporate the
information is presented influence would consider the nature of the exercise exercise into their daily routine when
how information is evaluated, or or draw on your knowledge about it was presented in an easy-to-read font.
even whether it is accepted as true geography to arrive at an informed Quite clearly, people misread the difficulty
or false? What are the practical decision. Surely, you wouldn’t base your of reading the exercise instructions as
implications for everyday life? judgement on the print font in which the indicative of the difficulty involved in
material is presented – or would you? doing the exercise. If we want people
Surprisingly, recent experimental to adopt a new behaviour, it is therefore
research shows that the print font can important that instructions are not only
What is the likely role of metacognitive exert a profound influence on such semantically clear and easy to follow, but
questions
feelings of ease and difficulty in your decisions. This is the case because print also visually easy to read – or else the
own field of psychology? fonts and related variables influence how behaviour may seem unduly demanding.
fluently new information can be processed. Similar results were obtained when
What are the implications for teaching,
The resulting feeling of ease or difficulty, in people read a recipe for a Japanese lunch
counselling, advertising, health
turn, informs a wide variety of judgements, roll (Song & Schwarz, 2008b). When the
education, and political communication?
from judgements of effort to judgements identical recipe was presented in the
What do these influences imply for the of familiarity, truth, risk and beauty (for elegant but difficult-to-read Mistral font,
rationality of human judgement? a review see Schwarz et al., 2009). We they assumed that it would require more
illustrate some of these effects, discuss time and more skill than when it was
their applied implications, and note presented in the easy-to-read Arial font.
parallels between people’s reliance on Hence, it may be advantageous for
resources
Alter, A.L. & Oppenheimer, D.M. (2006). Marketing Research, 44, 347–356. (2004). Processing fluency and Social Psychology, 45, 513–523.
Predicting short-term stock Reber, R., Brun, M. & Mittendorfer, K. aesthetic pleasure: Is beauty in the Schwarz, N. & Clore, G.L. (2007).
fluctuations by using processing (2009). The use of heuristics in perceiver's processing experience? Feelings and phenomenal
fluency. Proceedings of the National intuitive mathematical judgment. Personality and Social Psychology experiences. In A. Kruglanski & E.T.
Academy of Science, 103, 9369–9372. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, Review, 8, 364–382. Higgins (Eds.) Social psychology:
McGlone, M.S. & Tofighbakhsh, J. (2000). 15(6), 1174–1178. Schwarz, N. (2006). On judgments of Handbook of basic principles (2nd edn)
Birds of a feather flock conjointly. Reber, R. & Schwarz, N. (1999). Effects of truth and beauty. Daedalus, 135, (pp.385–407). New York: Guilford.
Psychological Science, 11, 424–428. perceptual fluency on judgments of 136–138. Schwarz, N., Sanna, L., Skurnik, I. &
Novemsky, N., Dhar, R., Schwarz, N. & truth. Consciousness and Cognition, 8, Schwarz, N. & Clore, G.L. (1983). Mood, Yoon, C. (2007). Metacognitive
Simonson, I. (2007). Preference 338–342. misattribution, and judgments of experiences and the intricacies of
fluency in choice. Journal of Reber, R., Schwarz, N. & Winkielman, P. well-being. Journal of Personality and setting people straight. Advances in
Experimental Social Psychology, 39, questions. Social cognition, 26, 20(2), 135–138. Personality and Social Psychology, 81,
127-161. 791–799. Weaver, K., Garcia, S.M., Schwarz, N. & 989–1000.
Schwarz, N., Song, H. & Xu, J. (2009). Song, H. & Schwarz, N. (2008b). If it’s Miller, D.T. (2007). Inferring the Winkielman, P., Halberstadt, J.,
When thinking is difficult: hard to read, it’s hard to do: popularity of an opinion from its Fazendeiro, T. & Catty, S. (2006).
Metacognitive experiences as Processing fluency affects effort familiarity. Journal of Personality and Prototypes are attractive because
information. In M. Wänke (Ed.) The prediction and motivation. Social Psychology, 92, 821–833. they are easy on mind. Psychological
social psychology of consumer Psychological Science, 19, 986–988. Winkielman, P. & Cacioppo, J.T. (2001). Science, 17(9), 799–806.
behavior. New York: Psychology Song, H. & Schwarz, N. (2009). If it’s Mind at ease puts a smile on the Zajonc, R.B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of
Press. difficult to pronounce, it must be face: Psychophysiological evidence mere exposure. Journal of Personality
Song, H. & Schwarz, N. (2008a). Fluency risky: Fluency, familiarity, and risk that processing facilitation leads and Social Psychology, Monograph
and the detection of misleading perception. Psychological Science, to positive affect. Journal of Supplement, 9, 1–27.
there’s probably something to it. Hence, case, as a growing number of studies However, a change in print fonts is
the mere repetition of a statement shows. For example, we like a stimulus sufficient to attenuate this Moses illusion.
facilitates its acceptance as true, as more when a preceding visual or semantic When the question was presented in an
naturalistic studies of war-time rumours prime facilitates its processing – we even easy-to-read font, only 7 per cent of the
and many laboratory experiments find a picture of a lock more beautiful readers noticed the error, whereas 40 per
demonstrated (for a review see Schwarz when it was preceded by the word ‘key’ cent did so when it was presented in a
et al., 2009). (see Reber et al., 2004). This positive difficult-to-read font, similar to the one
As already seen, however, repetition response to fluently processed stimuli can shown in Figure 1 (Song & Schwarz,
is not the only variable that makes things also be captured with electromyography, 2008a). Whether this helps or hurts task
seem familiar – any other variable that a procedure that measures subtle muscle performance depends on whether the first
increases processing fluency can do the responses in the face (Winkielman & thing that comes to mind is correct or not.
trick. For example, Reber and Schwarz Cacioppo, 2001), indicating that fluent This phenomenon has potentially
(1999) presented participants with processing feels good. important practical implications. For
statements like ‘Orsono is a city in Chile’ Our preference for fluently processed example, product manufacturers often
and asked them to judge whether the stimuli underlies many of the variables hide deceptive information in the fine
statement is true or false. To manipulate known to influence aesthetic experience, print to make it less noticeable. If
the statements’ perceived familiarity, they from symmetry and figure–ground contrast consumers ever read the fine print,
presented the statements in colours that to the gestalt laws – all of these variables however, the disfluency associated with
were easy or difficult to read against a facilitate fluent processing (Reber et al., processing it may make it more likely
coloured background. As expected, the 2004). The same principle is also central to that they notice the deception. Similarly,
same statement was more often accepted the observation that we prefer prototypical presenting multiple-choice questions in
as true when the colour contrast made faces over more unusual ones – a difficult-to-read font may attenuate the
reading easy rather than difficult. Similarly, prototypical faces are easier to process and allure of familiar but erroneous response
McGlone and Tofighbakhsh (2000) elicit a more positive affective response alternatives.
reported that substantively equivalent (Winkielman et al., 2006). Moreover, this
aphorisms were more likely to be accepted research also sheds light on why scientists
as true when they were presented in a and poets alike believe that beauty and Conclusion
rhyming (e.g. ‘Woes unite foes’) rather truth go hand in hand, despite all the As the reviewed examples illustrate,
than non-rhyming form (e.g. ‘Woes unite beautiful and elegant theories that landed people attend to the dynamics of their
enemies’). Throughout, variables that on the trash heap of science – intuitive own information processing and are
facilitate fluent processing also facilitate judgements of beauty and truth are based highly sensitive to the resulting feelings
the impression that a statement is familiar on the same input, namely the experience of ease or difficulty. Unfortunately, they
and hence likely to be true. of fluent processing (Reber et al., 2009; are much less sensitive to where these
This fluency–familiarity–truth link Schwarz, 2006). feelings come from. As has been observed
presents a particular problem when we for moods and emotions (for a review see
attempt to counter rumours or to discredit Schwarz & Clore, 2007), they assume
misleading information. In most cases, the Fluency and processing style – that their feelings bear on whatever they
correction includes a repetition of the false Do I need to think twice? are thinking about, unless their attention
statement, along with reasons why it is Our positive affective response to fluently is drawn to an incidental source. Hence,
false. Unfortunately, this repetition processed material and the role of fluency any variable that facilitates or impairs
increases the experience of familiarity in judgements of popularity and truth fluent information processing can
when the false statement is encountered converge to predict an additional effect: profoundly affect people’s judgements and
again at a later time – long after the correct Fluently processed material should decisions. Communicators and educators
facts have been forgotten. As a result, receive less scrutiny. On the one hand, are therefore well advised to present
corrections that repeat false information statements that sound like we heard them information in a form that facilitates easy
ironically facilitate its later acceptance as before are less likely to invite scrutiny processing: if it’s easy to read, it seems
true (see Schwarz et al., 2007). It is than statements that seem unfamiliar. On easy to do, pretty, good, and true.
therefore important never to repeat the other hand, positive affect generally
anything that is false. Instead, increases heuristic processing with
communicators should attempt to make limited attention to detail, whereas
the truth as fluent and familiar as possible, negative affect facilitates systematic I Hyunjin Song
taking advantage of variables like processing with higher detail orientation is at Yale University
repetition, rhyme and easy readability. (see Schwarz & Clore, 2007). Hence, Hyunjin.song@yale.edu
material that is presented in a difficult-
to-read print font should receive more
Affect and beauty scrutiny, making it more likely that
One of the best known fluency effects readers detect substantive errors.
is the mere exposure effect originally As an example, consider the question
identified by Zajonc (1968): The more ‘How many animals of each kind did
often we see an object, like a Chinese Moses take on the Ark?’ Most people I Norbert Schwarz
ideograph, the more we like it. From a answer ‘two’ despite knowing that the is at the University of
fluency perspective, repeated exposure is biblical actor was Noah, not Moses. Even Michigan
just one of many variables that facilitate when warned that some of the statements nschwarz@umich.edu
fluent processing. If so, any other variable may be distorted, most people fail to
that makes processing easy should also notice the error because both actors are
increase liking. Empirically this is the similar in the context of biblical stories.