← all facts
cognition
You mistake the ease of processing for objective truth.
People rate statements as more accurate simply because the font is easier to read.
Studies show that claims written in high-contrast, clear fonts are judged as more likely to be true than those in difficult-to-read text. Fluency in reading is often misinterpreted by the brain as familiarity or reliability.
If you struggle to read it, you trust it less.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Reber and Schwarz (1999), Effects of Perceptual Fluency on Judgments of Truth
- What the check found
- Reber and Schwarz (1999) is the seminal paper on this effect, demonstrating that perceptual fluency (ease of processing) is often misattributed to the truthfulness of the statement.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.