You read it every single day, but do you know what the letter “G” actually looks like? Psychologists have recently discovered that most people don’t.
You can probably easily recognise the style of lowercase “g” that looks a bit like the number 9. But unless you set aside an hour of each day to sit down and stare at The Wiggles‘ logo, the ‘looptail’ variant of the letter g isn’t as easy to pick.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have recently conducted a study, finding that most people cannot pick out the correct, lowercase, looptail g when given a set of similar characters to choose from.
But here’s where things become really wild. Many of the people surveyed were not even aware that the second style exists.
Most digital fonts use the elusive looptail g, including the one you’re reading right now. You would have commonly come across the letter’s variant in books, newspapers, and even Google’s old logo.
But that’s enough beating around the bush, we know you’re here for the answer. If you guessed “g number 2”, you’re spot on.
You’re also part of a small minority. Only 7 of the 25 people that participated in the study answered correctly, which is peculiar considering nearly everyone can instinctively read it.
Researchers are putting this down to the fact that most of us never learn how to write a looptail g. Instead, we have become accustomed to reading it by sight, without actually taking in the details.
So in short, despite what everyone has ever told you – letters don’t actually matter.
