Thinking and Decision Making: Dual Process Theory-Alter and Oppenheimer (2007)

Alter and Oppenheimer-Aim

see how legibility of fonts affects reading

Alter and Oppenheimer-Method

sample: 40 Princeton students

completed (CRT)cognitive reflection test that was made up of 3 questions. Half of the participants read it in an easy-to-read font, another half in a difficult-to-read font

Alter and Oppenheimer- Result

10% in easy to read completes all three questions correctly, while 65% in difficult to read font completes all three correctly.:

Alter and Oppenheimer-Conclusion

-Difficult to read font causes participants to slow down and engage in system 2 thinking -> Results in answering the question correctly

-When a question is written in an easy to read font system 1 comes up with the obvious but incorrect answer

Alter and Oppenheimer-Evaluation

strong evidence for dual processing theory

​ only involved Princeton undergraduate students, which are clearly not representative of the general population. Therefore, the results may not generalize to other groups

​The CRT is made up of "trick" questions, which rarely come up in everyday life. Therefore, the ecological validity of this study is low,

Participant variability across groups

Easy to replicate