ArticleScientific reports2022
Resolving the bouba-kiki effect enigma by rooting iconic sound symbolism in physical properties of round and spiky objects.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sound-symbol correspondence in autism: TheResearch in autism · 2026Article
- The shape of a kiki: Sound symbolism affects production of figures.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Article
- Developing Associations to the Sounds of a Name.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Is Kiki angry and Bouba happy? Association between emotions, shapes, and sounds.Psychological research · 2025Article
- Sounds of the future and past.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2025Article
- The role of audiovisual congruence in aesthetic appreciation of contemporary music and visual art.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Using artificial intelligence to explore sound symbolic expressions of gender in American English.PeerJ. Computer science · 2024Article
- Neural basis of sound-symbolic pseudoword-shape correspondences.Neuropsychologia · 2023Article
- Neural Basis Of Sound-Symbolic Pseudoword-Shape Correspondences.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- The maluma/takete effect is late: No longitudinal evidence for shape sound symbolism in the first year.PloS one · 2023Article
- A cross-linguistic, sound symbolic relationship between labial consonants, voiced plosives, and Pokémon friendship.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
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Abstract
The "bouba-kiki effect", where "bouba" is perceived round and "kiki" spiky, remains a puzzling enigma. We solve it by combining mathematical findings largely unknown in the field, with computational models and novel experimental evidence. We reveal that this effect relies on two acoustic cues: spectral balance and temporal continuity. We demonstrate that it is not speech-specific but rather rooted in physical properties of objects, creating audiovisual regularities in the environment. Round items are mathematically bound to produce, when hitting or rolling on a surface, lower-frequency spectra and more continuous sounds than same-size spiky objects. Finally, we show that adults are sensitive to such regularities. Hence, intuitive physics impacts language perception and possibly language acquisition and evolution too.
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