Wolfgang Kohler came up with the Bouba-Kiki Effect in 1929
and it has been tested ever since, continuing to find similar results. The
first names for these shapes were “takete” and “baluba”. Still the results were
similar to what we see now with the names Kiki and Bouba; the majority of
people classify the sharp shape as Kiki and the rounded shape as Bouba. This
test seems to keep true in different languages and cultures with the first
version of the test was tested on Spanish speakers and later on English
speakers and Indian speakers.
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| Image from http://www.synesthesiatest.org/blog/bouba-kiki-effect |
Many people who try to explain this phenomena link it to
synesthesia. They claim there is a connection to the sounds we hear and what
objects we associate them with. National Geographic even stretched the claim of
synesthesia farther when they made foods in the shape of Kiki’s and Bouba’s.
One test shows that people associated the word Kiki with spicy foods and Bouba
with milder foods. Another test was conducted where the researchers tested if
the shape of the plates the food was served on had an effect on taste. The
results show that food was found sweeter when served on round plates.
These tests relate more to the idea of taste and shape,
getting a bit off topic from the idea of language and word shapes. To me the
Bouba-Kiki Effect sounds more like sound symbolism. Sound symbolism is
defined as presumed association of sound and meaning found. The effect supports
this as over 95% of subjects assign the sharp shape as Kiki and the rounder one
as Bouba.
The sources I used are:
http://www.synesthesiatest.org/blog/bouba-kiki-effect http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/26/kiki-or-bouba-whats-the-shape-of-your-taste/
The concept of sounds symbolism is interesting because it's kind of contradictory even though evidence exists that it's real: in class, we learned that there is no actually link between what we see and what we say but the Bouba-Kiki Effect shows differently. I think it's about perception of objects. The sharp-edged shape is Kiki to most people because it sounds sharper somehow than Bouba, which balloons out softly in my head. I can't exactly explain why this effect happens but it makes sense that it does. Interesting topic!
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