Voters associate font styles with either liberal or conservative politics, a new study has suggested.
Katherine Haenschen and Daniel Tamul from Virginia Tech University were prompted to begin the research after seeing yard signs during an election.
"I was driving through the region and noticed the same campaign was using a different font on signs in rural areas than on the signs in town," said Haenschen.
"I thought, why would this candidate be using multiple fonts?"
What they found was that sans-serif fonts – those without lines or strokes attached to the ends – were more likely to be perceived as liberal.
The more decorative serif fonts, meanwhile, were seen to represent conservative politics.
The study also found that the more people view a font as associated with their politics, the more they favour it.
"This research is of interest to anyone who cares about political communications, and the results have clear implications for political campaign professionals," said Haenschen.
"When you're choosing a candidate's visual identity, you need to consider how people perceive that font."
For the study, the duo showed 987 participants a single phrase in serif (Times New Roman) and sans-serif (Gill Sans) fonts.
They were then asked to rate the typeface and to give personal information, including about their politics.
The participants were later shown a series of typefaces and asked about any political associations they evoke.
"This study shows that font plays a role in American political communication, conveying ideology through the anatomy of its letterforms," said Haenschen.
"Through this research, we lay the groundwork for future studies that may identify relationships between fonts and persuasive outcomes in political communication."
