ArticleFrontiers in psychology2015
The sweetest thing: the influence of angularity, symmetry, and the number of elements on shape-valence and shape-taste matches.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sweet Round, Spicy Sharp: How Chinese Typeface Features Trick the Tongue into Tasting Five Flavors.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The unity of sense and mind: A review of cross-domain mapping.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Review
- Museotherapy as a method: an investigation into the emotional experiences of Chinese youth visitors.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Unpacking the Influence of Visual Density on Pizza Packaging: Sensory Expectations and Purchase Intentions.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Marble melancholy: using crossmodal correspondences of shapes, materials, and music to predict music-induced emotions.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Influence of letter shape on readers' emotional experience, reading fluency, and text comprehension and memorisation.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- The influence of Bouba- and Kiki-like shape on perceived taste of chocolate pieces.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Crossmodal correspondences between visual features and tastes in preschoolers: an exploratory study.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Visual communication via the design of food and beverage packaging.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2022Review
- Contour features predict valence and threat judgements in scenes.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- People With High Autistic Traits Show Fewer Consensual Crossmodal Correspondences Between Visual Features and Tastes.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Drawing sounds: representing tones and chords spatially.Experimental brain research · 2016Article
- The semantic basis of taste-shape associations.PeerJ · 2016Article
- What's in a Face? How Face Gender and Current Affect Influence Perceived Emotion.Frontiers in psychology · 2016Article
- Article
- Crossmodal correspondences between basic tastes and visual design features: A narrative historical review.i-PerceptionArticle
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
A within-participants experiment was conducted in two countries (the UK and Colombia) in order to investigate the matching of shapes to taste words. Comparing the two countries allowed us to explore some of the cultural differences that have been reported thus far solely in terms of people's visual preferences. In particular, we addressed the question of whether properties other than angularity influence shape-valence and shape-taste matching (crossmodal correspondences). The participants in the present study repeatedly matched eight shapes, varying in terms of their angularity, symmetry, and number of elements to one of two words-pleasant or unpleasant and sweet or sour. Participants' choices, as well as the latency of their responses, and their hand movements, were evaluated. The participants were more likely to judge those shapes that were rounder, symmetrical, and those shapes that had fewer elements as both pleasant and sweet. Those shapes that were more angular, asymmetrical, and that had a greater number of elements, were more likely to be judged as both unpleasant and sour instead. The evidence presented here therefore suggests that aside from angularity and roundness, both symmetry/asymmetry and the number of elements present in a shape also influence valence and taste categorizations.
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