We’ve all heard that there are some people who see certain words in certain colors, but what if I told you that more than 90% of us do match words with shapes, as well as this is proven through various studies conducted in different cultures around the world on adults and toddlers alike?
Please take a look at the two shapes in the image below and try to guess which one is “Bouba” and which one is “Kiki”.
Yes, that is correct – the round one is indeed “Bouba” and the spiky one is indeed “Kiki”! People all around the world agree about this regardless of their native language, the continent they are living on, or how old they are.
This effect was first observed by German psychologist Wolfgang Köhler in 1929. He conducted the experiment on Tenerife (Canary Islands), where the primary language is Spanish. Much later, in 2001, Ramachandran and Hubbard did similar research on American college undergraduates and Tamil speakers in India. The results are amazing – over 90% of the participants match “Bouba” with round shapes and “Kiki” with edgy shapes. Furthermore, neuroscientist Daphne Maurer proved that even children two and a half years old show this effect as well.
Ramachandran and Hubbard have suggested that the Bouba-Kiki may exist due to the connections between sensory and motor areas of the brain. For example, the visual shape of the object is linked to the shape that our lips and tongue make when we say the name of the object. These findings further suggested that the naming of objects is not completely arbitrary (as it was previously believed).
To make things even more interesting, this is not true only for the names of the objects, but for personal names too. A study demonstrated that people tend to pair names such as "Molly" with round silhouettes, while names such as "Kate" are related to sharp silhouettes.
What does your name sound like?
I like to use at least two pictures for each article. While searching for the second appropriate image, I bumped into this cute (and free to use) image of a cat in a cup and decided to share it with you, although it is completely irrelevant for the article.
If you liked this post, then you would probably also like my recent article: Do you see any helicopters over children? Helicopter parents are all around us!
Have a wonderful day, week, and life!