From: Michael Brady <bradydesign-AT-embarqmail.com>
Date: 11 Feb 2009 15:51:08 UTC   (10:51:08 AM in author's locale)
To: InDesign Talk <indesign-AT-lists.lassosoft.com>

This came up on another list, and I audaciously crib some of that
message:

… according to a new study from two psychologists at the University of
Michigan at Ann Arbor, anyway.

This Scientific American article describes their elegant experiment to see how people react when something “feels” difficult. They presented
two different groups of college students with printed instructions for a regular exercise routine. While the wording was the same in both
sets of instructions, one group received instructions printed in a
hard-to-read Brush font (a font that looks like brush strokes) while
the other group received instructions printed in good ol’ fashioned Arial.

The results were crystal clear. People who received Arial instructions were more enthusiastic about the exercise routine than the Brush font folks, and predicted it would be much easier. The psychologists tried the experiment again using a sushi roll recipe and saw similar results.

Scientific American article at:
www.sciam.com/article.cfm

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Michael Brady
michaelb-AT-michaelbradydesign.com

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