“Bouba” and “Kiki” in Namibia? A remote culture make similar shape–sound matches, but different shape–taste matches to Westerners

• Published in: Cognition 2013-02, Vol.126 (2), p.165-172
• Main Authors: Bremner, Andrew J., Caparos, Serge, Davidoff, Jules, de Fockert, Jan, Linnell, Karina J., Spence, Charles
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustics; Adolescent; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Cross-cultural; Cross-cultural analysis; Crossmodal correspondence; Cultural Differences; Cultural Influences; Culture; Environmental change; Environmental Influences; Female; Flavour; Foreign Countries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genetics; Humans; Language; Male; Multimodal perception; Namibia; Perception; Phonetics; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Shape symbolism; Sound symbolism; Symbolism; Taste; Taste - physiology; Verbal Behavior - physiology
• ISSN: 0010-0277; 1873-7838
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.09.007

► “Bouba-Kiki effect” is present in the Himba, a remote population without a written orthography. ► The Himba are very different from Westerners in the ways in which they align flavours with shapes. ► The first demonstration of crosscultural variation in multisensory processing. 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.