Menus with fancy font can mean fancy prices: study

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Restaurants using fancy typeface on their menus can often get away with fancy prices too with people perceiving complicated font to mean complex food that needs greater skills to prepare, according to a U.S. study.

Researchers at the University of Michigan found people believed if that if the font was harder to read then the task was harder to do.

Looked at the other way, researchers said this meant that clear font was likely to lead to the perception that the task was simple and people were more able to complete it.

For example if you wanted a culinary-challenged spouse to make dinner, giving him or her a recipe in simple font may do the trick as they would see the task as simple and achievable.

"People think, 'If it's hard to read, it's hard to do'," researcher Hyunjin Song told Reuters.

"But what's interesting is that if people could recognize where those feelings of difficulty are coming from - the font type - it might not have such an impact on their judgment."

She said these findings could influence everything from the way companies print their instruction manuals to what typeface restaurants use on their menus.

Hyunjin and her colleague Norbert Schwarz said the study was based on asking 27 adults to read a recipe written in two different fonts and estimate the time needed to prepare the dish and their willingness to do so.

They found that participants who read the recipe in the easy-to-read font predicted a shorter preparation time and were more willing to try the recipe than those who read it in more complicated font.

Participants asked to evaluate a restaurant menu predicted that chefs preparing a dish printed in complicated font would need greater skills than chefs preparing a dish printed in simple font which then justified a higher price.

But Hyunjin said marketers looking to up the price of their products would be wise to consider carefully what they're selling.

"Some people value very simple wording and typeface," she said. "For instance, people buying organic food like less processed items and may evaluate items that are printed in easy-to-read font more highly."

Likewise, instruction manuals printed in complicated fonts are likely to deter shoppers from buying the item.

High-tech gadgets, however, stand to benefit if they're described in difficult-to-read font, Hyunjin said.

(Reporting by Lara Hertel; editing by Belinda Goldsmith)