Familiarity effect in the perception of handwriting: Evaluating in-group/out-group effect among readers of the Latin script

Authors

  • Hector Mangas Afonso Typotheque | The Netherlands
  • Anouk Keizer Utrecht University | The Netherlands
  • Peter Biľak Typotheque | The Netherlands
  • Sofie Beier Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts | Denmark

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2024.16.02.01

Keywords:

Hand writing, handwriting, implicit preference, in-group out-group bias, Latin script, familiarity effect, ingroup

Abstract

There is much evidence that familiarity can affect perception of stimuli, with items that are familiar to the individual being preferred and better remembered. Previous research has also shown that familiarity with a typeface increases preference for it, but no studies have evaluated the impact of familiarity in relation to the affect towards handwritten text. For the present study, a two-part experiment (N = 422) was designed to measure how contemporary users of the Latin script perceive handwritten text. The first section was designed to collect specimens of the participants’ handwriting. The second, which was adapted to each participant’s handwriting style, measured implicit judgments of certain familiar letter shapes against unfamiliar ones. Results show that familiarity positively influences the extent to which one judges the friendliness and trustworthiness of handwritten text. Furthermore, the greater the similarity to how one writes a letterform, the greater the observed effect in terms of perceived friendliness. These findings suggest that people have an implicit bias towards handwriting that looks like their own.

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Published

2024-09-10

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Familiarity effect in the perception of handwriting: Evaluating in-group/out-group effect among readers of the Latin script. (2024). Journal of Writing Research, 16(2), 203-222. https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2024.16.02.01

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