We're suckers.

Ok, I'll wear that.
Apparently,

RESTAURANTS using fancy typeface on their menus can often get away with fancy prices too with people perceiving complicated font to mean complex food that needs greater skills to prepare.

Researchers at the University of Michigan found people believed if that if the font was harder to read then the task was harder to do.

Looked at the other way, researchers said this meant that clear font was likely to lead to the perception that the task was simple and people were more able to complete it.

My example, that I whipped up, shown below. (Forgive the terrible graphic, my ability in this is extremely limited.)


Yep, I reckon its probably true. The Left could be in a restaurant, the same menu on the right looks like it could be on the chalkboard at the pub, with the addition of "Schnitzel or Steak $10 Tuesday".

Gordon Ramsay deals a lot with issues like this on Kitchen Nightmares. Especially when there's a restaurant that is failing because they're trying to be too fancy in a small town that can't understand their menu. I'm an avid watcher so this is less surprising for me than someone else possibly. A particluar episode I recall, the chefs were all French, and they were trying to do Fine Dining, in a town in Scotland that couldn't understand what they were meant to be eating.