Humans robustly associate spiky shapes to words like "Kiki" and round shapes to words like "Bouba". A popular explanation is that this is because the mouth assumes an angular shape while speaking "Kiki" and a rounded shape for "Bouba". Alternatively, this effect could reflect more general associations between shape and sound that are not specific to mouth shape or articulatory properties of speech. These possibilities can be distinguished using unpronounceable sounds: the mouth-shape hypothesis predicts no effect, whereas the generic shape-sound hypothesis predicts a systematic effect. Here, we show that the Bouba-Kiki effect is present for a variety of unpronounceable sounds ranging from reversed words and real object sounds (n = 45 participants) and even pure tones (n = 28). The effect was strongly correlated with the mean frequency of a sound across both spoken and reversed words. The effect was not systematically predicted by subjective ratings of pronounceability or with mouth aspect ratios measured from video.Thus, the Bouba-Kiki effect is explained using simple shape-sound associations, rather than using speech properties. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCEOur languages sometimes contain systematic associations between object names and their shapes. A classic example is the Bouba-Kiki effect, whereby people across diverse cultures associate round shapes with words like "Bouba" and spiky shapes with words like "Kiki". This effect is widely believed to arise because the mouth takes a rounded or angular shape while uttering Bouba or Kiki. Here, we provide evidence against this possibility by showing that people systematically associate even reversed words, real
Humans robustly associate spiky shapes to words like “Kiki” and round shapes to words like “Bouba”. A popular explanation is that the mouth forms an angular shape while saying “Kiki” and a rounded shape while saying “Bouba”, leading to this association. Alternatively, there could be generic associations between the shapes of objects and the sounds they produce. These possibilities can be distinguished using unpronounceable sounds: the mouth-shape hypothesis predicts no effect, whereas the generic shape hypothesis predicts a systematic effect. Here, we show that the Bouba-Kiki effect is present for a variety of unpronounceable sounds ranging from reversed versions of Bouba-like and Kiki-like words and natural real object sounds to even pure tones. The effect was strongly correlated with the mean frequency of a sound independent of its pronounceability. Thus, the Bouba-Kiki effect reflects generic associations between sounds and object shape rather than mouth shape.
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