‘Handwritten’ menus trick people into thinking they’re eating healthier, study claims

Nothing says healthy home-cooking like … good handwriting?

Restaurants that use a menu typeface with a human touch have a better shot at appealing to health-conscious customers, a new study out of The Ohio State University finds. When menus appear to be handwritten — as opposed to printed up in a standard font — diners believe that the food will be better for their bodies.

Researchers offered the study’s 185 participants two different menus for a made-up restaurant called “Riley’s Kitchen” — one done up in the popular font Helvetica, and the other in a folksier, scribbly typeface. Half of the patrons were told the restaurant featured “locally grown, non-GMO, antibiotic-free ingredients.” The rest were just handed a menu.

Across the board, the would-be diners — who ranged in age from 20 to 84 — felt that the latter option corresponded with healthier food, even though the actual menu items were identical.

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That’s because an attractive scrawl “feels to the customer like there is more heart, more effort, and more love in it,” the study’s co-author Stephanie Liu said in a statement.

The researchers found that when customers believed the menu contained “love,” they were more likely to interact with the restaurant’s brand on social media — and make return visits, Liu said.

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However, an appetizingly handmade font or snazzy chalkboard menu won’t work for just any eatery.

The menu items themselves have to come off as nutritious and ingredient-centric in order for the trick to work, explained Liu, whose study was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Business Research.

“This wouldn’t apply to a fast-food brand that sells low-quality hamburgers,” she said.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post.