Cross-cultural emotion responses to Japanese typefaces

Previous empirical studies have correlated specific typeface features (variety versus contrast versus pattern) to specific emotional parameters (amusement versus agitation versus focus). These studies provide a systematic explanation for analyzing typeface features and emotional parameters. Many of these studies have attempted to show that cross-cultural responses are consistent. One study attempted to show that the emotional response to Japanese typefaces are the same as the emotional response to Roman typefaces. While this study did show that emotional responses to Japanese typefaces were consistent with previous empirical studies, the participants were generally English-speaking US residents. This paper will report the results of an empirical study with participants who are generally from non-US cultural backgrounds. This study is designed to measure emotional responses to Japanese typefaces. In this study, the purpose is to determine the degree to which general patterns of response of native English speaking participants resemble or differ from responses of non-native English speaking participants. The results support the work of previous empirical studies and show that the same typeface features (variety versus contrast versus pattern) produce the same emotional responses (amusement versus agitation versus focus); these responses are generally consistent cross-culturally.