Bouba and Kiki Effect: Which one is Bouba and Which one is Kiki?

Written by Elif Gulce Batgi

Do shapes have the same sound to people regardless of their language? It probably happened to you earlier. For example, the names of the people you have met and their appearance may be consistent or not. It is about the shapes and the sounds which the human brain automatically finds a connection between them. Bouba and kiki effect is one of the most efficient examples to highlight that connection.

(Image credit: https://www.sciencefriday.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/bouba3.jpg.)

It is a famous experiment done by neuroscientists V.S. Ramachandran and Edward Hubbard(1). They asked American college undergraduates and Tanil Speakers in India ``Which is kiki and which is bouba?” by showing a picture of two shapes. If you have answered it as the rounded shape is bouba and the spiky shape is kiki, congratulations you are right. 95% to 98% of subjects responded as you did. Then, they tested it on toddlers and they observed that the results were the same. They found out that the sounds that pair with shapes have the same influence even before language development(1).

Furthermore, it can be said that our brains connect the rounded shape with bouba because of the shape that our mouths take while pronouncing the word “bouba” but take a more angular shape while pronouncing the word “kiki”(2) as an explanation to why nearly all of the subjects' answers are the same. In addition, ”K” is a harder-sounding letter than “B”. Also, “K” is sharp, and “B'' is a rounded letter for Latin alphabet users (including English speakers) (2). After the bouba and kiki experiments, similar experiments have been conducted, too. All of the experiments were again conducted to demonstrate that shapes may be linked to sounds.

Language is one of the best ways of communication. Language evolved and took different forms as a result of cultural differences and today it has been spoken in hundreds of different ways and tones. In one say, this experiment shows that first languages were representative sounds that people linked to concepts. Then, the language started to shape and finally started to become more complex.

In conclusion, the bouba and kiki experiment clearly shows us that our brains are able to link sounds and shapes. Disconcertingly, the connection between them has nothing to do with the languages that a person speaks. So, it can be definitely said that sounds are a communication way between different language speakers and sounds arouse the same feeling.

References:

1. What’s the neuroscience behind the Bouba/Kiki effect? (2019, June 28). NBB in Paris. https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/nbbparis/2019/06/28/whats-the-neuroscience-behind-the-bouba-kiki-effect/.

2. Science Buddies. (2012, November 15). Shape science: The Bouba-Kiki effect. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-bouba-kiki-effect/.