“Bouba” and “Kiki” in Namibia? A remote culture make similar shape–sound matches, but different shape–taste matches to Westerners
Bremner, Andrew J.; Caparos, S.; Davidoff, J.; de Fockert, J.; Linnell, K. J. and Spence, C.. 2013. “Bouba” and “Kiki” in Namibia? A remote culture make similar shape–sound matches, but different shape–taste matches to Westerners. Cognition, 126(2), pp. 165-172. [Article]
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Abstract or Description
Western participants consistently match certain shapes with particular speech sounds, tastes, and flavours. Here we demonstrate that the ‘‘Bouba-Kiki effect’’, a well-known shape–sound symbolism effect commonly observed in Western participants, is also observable in the Himba of Northern Namibia, a remote population with little exposure to Western cultural and environmental influences, and who do not use a written language. However, in contrast to Westerners, the Himba did not map carbonation (in a sample of sparkling water) onto an angular (as opposed to a rounded) shape. Furthermore, they also tended to match less bitter (i.e., milk) chocolate samples to angular rather than rounded shapes; the opposite mapping to that shown by Westerners. Together, these results show that cultural–environmental as well as phylogenetic factors play a central role in shaping our repertoire of crossmodal correspondences.
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Article |
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Keywords: |
Cross-cultural, Sound symbolism, Shape symbolism, Taste, Flavour, Crossmodal correspondence |
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Item ID: |
17746 |
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Date Deposited: |
15 Apr 2016 11:59 |
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Last Modified: |
29 Apr 2020 16:17 |
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Peer Reviewed: |
Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed. |
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