Misty Harris
Province
Rorschach tests are fine for those who think creepy inkblots are the window to the soul. But for Canadians who prefer a more contemporary shortcut to psychoanalysis, researchers say look no farther than your preferred typeface.
A study out of Wichita State University in Kansas has found the choice of font used in e-mails, web text, digital scrap-booking and other on-screen communication sends a strong message about the person behind the keystrokes.
For example, a mono-spaced typeface such as Courier New, in which every character — from the I to the W — has the same width, implies dullness and lack of imagination; a whimsical script, such as Gigi, points to a person who’s highly creative, feminine and unstable.
But unlike standard personality tests, which reveal who you are, the Wichita typeface analysis only indicates how others perceive you.
“I think it’s important for people to realize that typefaces do have inherent personalities, and those personalities do translate to the perception of the document,” says Dawn Shaikh, co-author of the study and a PhD graduate in human factors psychology. “It helps determine whether people trust you, see you as professional, see you as mature, honest, and all of these other things.”
The study involved 561 students who were asked to describe 20 popular typefaces using 15 adjective pairs.
Monospaced fonts were strongly linked with words like dull, plain, conforming and unimaginative. Modern display typefaces such as Impact and Rockwell Xbold were most associated with the adjectives masculine, assertive, rude, sad and coarse, while serif fonts such as Times New Roman and Georgia scored highest on words like stable, practical, mature and formal. Scripts and funny fonts such as Gigi, Comic Sans and Monotype Corsiva were connected to the adjectives youthful, happy, creative, rebellious, feminine, casual and cuddly, but simultaneously drew the highest scores for instability and impracticality.
“I have two daughters and all their letters from the school principal are written in Comic Sans,” says Shaikh, referring to a bubbly, childlike font introduced by Microsoft in 1995. “I know they’re trying to be cute, but it’s so unprofessional.”
© The Vancouver Province 2007
