An experiment at the New York Times yields a question about whether font selection matters in the persuasiveness of the text.
Theology of Typeface
The church I attended while growing up in the Bible Belt had no capital letters in the bulletin. Like it was written by ee cummings, the bulletin was all in lower case, with only references to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit utilizing capital letters.
As an overly inquisitive child (shocker, perhaps), I once asked why the bulletin did that. The response was that human words were less than divine words and to remind us of that in the worship space, they use lower-case for human words. They were consistent: scripture references were also in lower case, reflecting a theology of inspiration rather than dictation.
I wonder if anyone noticed they were receiving theological instruction just by the type choices being used.
Do Fonts matter?
An interesting experiment a few years ago (that recently resurfaced) examined if particular fonts were more persuasive than others. A researcher rotated between six fonts on a survey at the New York Times and found that respondents agreed with a quote using a particular font at a much higher rate than would be statistically expected. That font (Baskerville) became the choice of that researcher from that point to give just a bit of an edge to his writings.
The researcher reflects:
Truth is not typeface dependent, but a typeface can subtly influence us to believe that a sentence is true. Could it swing an election? Induce us to buy a new dinette set? Change some of our most deeply held and cherished beliefs? Indeed, we may be at the mercy of typefaces in ways that we are only dimly beginning to recognize. An effect — subtle, almost indiscernible, but irrefutably there. (“Mommy, Mommy, the typeface made me do it.”)
Commenters on the original experiment noted a cognitive fluency effect, whereby the dense serif font Baskerville slows down the reader, who then might absorb a little more of the content. Flipping through my theological tomes and comparing them to light reads, I can see it in immediate effect: the tomes with denser type had more sidenotes, which may mean more engagement.
So you can now wonder if the mega church’s huge budget for marketing and persuasion includes picking just the right font to help you experience a quote or Scripture in a new way.
How churches can use this research
Three takeaways for people to consider that are basics for design professionals but perhaps unknown to most folks who use Times New Roman for everything:
- Use serif fonts like Baskerville whenever you have text you want people to read closely. Scripture, liturgy, announcements all slow people down and help them understand what they are reading.
- Use sans serif fonts whenever you have titles or section heads that merit quick glances. These are easier on the eye and thus easier to find in a darkened sanctuary.
- Make quotes and scripture stand out in other ways. Do block quotes to move the indent from the stream of text. Give the source material its own placement with a readable text. While some prefer to have quotes in the middle of a paragraph, I always prefer them to be stand-alone so that they stand on their own.
It seems silly to talk about fonts. But giving Scripture or holy quotations their own frame, font, and design choices helps people comprehend the text, not just read it. Helping people slow down in our fast-paced world by using a particular font may cause them to read exactly what they needed for that day or to complement the worship service.
While we are increasingly consuming visual content, the written word will always have power. It’s always helpful to have other tools to remind people of the power of the written word (and Word), and thus font selection may be important to be intentional–and consistent–about.
Thoughts?
I’m sorry, I don’t believe a word of what you’ve written because it’s in sans serif font. 🙂
I was just about to type exactly the same thing. Imagine serifs on mine. #seriousstuff
Use comic sans when trolling people who have a graphic design background.
I have to agree with you here. I think of these things as design elements and design absolutely matters.
In your post you have used a technique by putting in bold print about one sentence per paragraph. As you are aware, if I read only the bold sentences I can follow your post.This is a way to convey a message to those people who will not read every word.
The type style, white space, bolding, and indenting all make it easier to read and understand.
I can imagine that some people would find this manipulative, but actually it’s a way to reach people with different styles. To me that is a way to respect our diversity.
i’m sorry, but Papyrus is the most important font, for anything important.
in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. amen.
Appreciated this post. It is painful to see a church bulletin attempting to communicate something seriously with Comic Sans. Maybe, just maybe, for a kids notice but liturgy is a no go. The reverse is true in the positive usage I would agree.
Come, thou font of every blessing!
Perfect – this truly made me “Laugh Out Loud!”
And for God’s sake, NEVER use Comic Sans, for anything. It is infantilizing and insulting. I have been known to leave worship if the bulletin was printed in Comic Sans.
It really relates to me. Being an immigrant with many other fonts in another language having bold letters in paragraph makes them to read the important stuff that you would like to lift up during worship. I think most of immigrants cant read fast enough but bold letters do make it easy to summarize all…. And especially with youths and middle schoolers, they do not want to read. I think it addresses to all who read some and who read all…. Nice article….
What are your thoughts on the elderly community or others who use large type bulletins? Should serif or font issues apply in the same way?
Awesome post. Thanks for articulating some important ideas around something lots of people might consider to be trivial.
Interesting post, thanks!
Honestly, I think you’re generalizing the results of this research too much when applying it to church. You’d have to consider your audience vs. the audience in the research. The test was performed on nytimes.com, so presumably their sample group consisted of digitally savvy people looking at information on a screen.
For most churches, the demographic and situation is much different: Older adults looking at printed material. They might have trouble reading the font, for example—the study looked at truthfulness, not readability, and might actually decrease reading comprehension for people with visual impairments. Sans serif fonts are traditionally easier to read, but again, they were looking at different variables.
Just a thought.
Best article that I’ve come across on fonts. I’m trying to consider what font would be best to use in our church bulletin. Any suggestions other than what you’ve mentioned? Thanks!