The bouba/kiki effect is robust across cultures and writing systems.

ABSTRACT: The bouba/kiki effect-the association of the nonce word bouba with a round shape and kiki with a spiky shape-is a type of correspondence between speech sounds and visual properties with potentially deep implications for the evolution of spoken language. However, there is debate over the robustness of the effect across cultures and the influence of orthography. We report an online experiment that tested the bouba/kiki effect across speakers of 25 languages representing nine language families and 10 writing systems. Overall, we found strong evidence for the effect across languages, with bouba eliciting more congruent responses than kiki. Participants who spoke languages with Roman scripts were only marginally more likely to show the effect, and analy

SUBMITTER: Cwiek A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8591387 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature