Faded Fonts

Abstract

<jats:p>Faded fonts on billboards and signage causes awareness of missing information. In this research, we highlight the importance of fonts in advertising and wayfinding and how it impacts sensitivity to missing information. Across two studies, we demonstrate that disfluency caused by faded fonts can reduce omission neglect. Study 1 establishes the basis for consequences of disfluency on omission neglect as well as its effects on judgments. Study 2 demonstrates that disfluency increases awareness of missing information by reducing response time differences for correctly identifying previously presented versus missing information. Taken together, the two studies demonstrate that disfluency increases sensitivity to absent information. Practical implications to signage and theoretical contributions to research on omission neglect are discussed.</jats:p>

Effects of Time for Deliberation and Disfluency on Omission Neglect

“…Given that omission detection also requires effortful, analytic processing, disfluency may heighten consumers' sensitivity to relevant information missing from product description and help them form less extreme judgments and decisions (Sanbonmatsu, Kardes, and Sansone 1991). This proposition is supported by recent research on signage and information processing that shows how difficult-to-read fonts increase one's awareness of missing information and ability to detect missing information, leading to lower evaluation extremity (Sundar et al 2019).…”

“…Then, we examine how this characteristic can impact information processing and judgment through the theoretical framework of omission neglect, the lack of awareness of missing information (Sanbonmatsu et al 2003). Prior research demonstrates that disfluency reduces omission neglect in general (Sundar et al 2019). Extending the discovery of this prior research, we examine the role of processing time in moderating the disfluency effect, as processing time is a critical variable both theoretically and practically.…”

“…The background in which a product description appears should be designed carefully when marketers design visual marketing signs. Prior literature has demonstrated the importance of research on fonts and other visual presentations in marketing communications as they have been shown to significantly impact consumers' information processing, judgments, and decisions (Pieters, Warlop, and Wedel 2002;Dennis et al 2010;Sundar, Wu, Kardes 2019;Yoon et al 2014;Dynel 2011;Huddleston et al 2018;Kim and Lennon 2008;Sundar, Gonsales, and Schafer 2018).…”

“…Prior research suggests that understanding the fluency and disfluency effect is important to predicting what drives consumer judgment and decision making in marketing communications with textual / visual messages on signage, billboards, and other forms of outdoor advertising (Sundar et al 2019;Wu, Shah, and Kardes 2020). Fluency, or ease of processing, usually leads to more favorable evaluative and affective judgments (Lee and Labroo 2004).…”

Introduction

“…Researchers have long advocated for effective signage graphics as a way to influence consumer perception (Fontaine and Bradbury 2017). The visual experience of signage includes outcomes on consumer inferences that could be apparently straightforward such as the influence of visual depiction of movement on a sense of belonging in the community (Sundar et al 2018), to more unintuitive findings such as the role and effect of visual disfluency as it increases sensitivity to missing information (Sundar et. al.…”