Contrast and assimilation effects of processing fluency

When perceptually difficult-to-read information (e.g., a magazine article in difficult font) precedes easy-to-read information about a product, the subjective ease of processing experienced in reading the product's information increases. This change in subjective ease leads to more favorable evaluations of it. Three experiments identify whether this contrast effect on judgment of the second product occurs because evaluations of the content described by the difficult-to-read material are used as a basis for evaluation. Or, if the effect is perceptual in nature and participants are unaware of the influence that fluency of previously encountered information has on subsequent evaluations