title: Disfluent fonts don't help people solve math problems.
abstract: Prior research suggests that reducing font clarity can cause people to consider printed information more carefully. The most famous demonstration showed that participants were more likely to solve counterintuitive math problems when they were printed in hard-to-read font. However, after pooling data from that experiment with 16 attempts to replicate it, we find no effect on solution rates. We examine potential moderating variables, including cognitive ability, presentation format, and experimental setting, but we find no evidence of a disfluent font benefit under any conditions. More generally, though disfluent fonts slightly increase response times, we find little evidence that they activate analytic reasoning.
authors.affiliation: Marketing Department, Yale University.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: Marketing Department, Yale University.
authors.forename: Shane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frederick
authors.affiliation: Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University.
authors.forename: Terence C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Burnham
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University.
authors.forename: Juan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Guevara Pinto
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Georgia Southern University.
authors.forename: Ty W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Boyer
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire.
authors.forename: Linden J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Ball
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo.
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pennycook
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
authors.forename: Rakefet
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ackerman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan.
authors.forename: Valerie A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication, Cornell University.
authors.forename: Jonathon P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Schuldt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading