Article published in:
The Expression of Inequality in Interaction: Power, dominance, and status
Edited by Hanna Pishwa and Rainer Schulze
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 248] 2014
► pp. 193–211

A true authoritarian type

How fonts can facilitate positive opinions for powerful groups

| Hocking College, Nelsonville Ohio, USA
To convey authority in a document, people choose specific typefaces (or fonts). Studies find that repeating a message makes it more persuasive, and that different typefaces lead to different associations. Also, statements are more memorable when written in harder-to-read typefaces; yet more believable for easier-to-read ones. In each of the two present experiments, surveys measuring authoritarianism were written in various typefaces. The first experiment sought evaluations of groups such as the army and police. The second experiment included subject matters like illegal wiretapping by the F.B.I. The results suggested participants had more positive views for authoritarian groups and more likely supported morally questionable actions when the surveys were written in an easy-to-read typeface.
Published online: 12 June 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.248.08don
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Cited by 1 other publications

Donahue, John
2014. Using the Explicit Goals of a Message to Help Select an Effective Typeface. SSRN Electronic Journal Crossref logo

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