As to your wording to the topic: given that a term paper involves, at one level, selling a professor, the typeface choice didn't so much affect "how we read" as "what sells." I'd imagine any person connected with advertising would not find this outcome at all strange.

But more to the point is (best I can remember), as we proceed along our educational career, we also figure out what sells a professor vis a vis content. To ascribe the better performance simply to type selection is a bit quick. And if by some strange chance true, what does that say about the cost and value of a college education?