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Bouba/kiki effect

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The bouba–kiki effect (/ˈbuːbə ˈkiːkiː/ BOO-bə KEE-kee) or takete–maluma phenomenon is a non-arbitrary mental association between certain speech sounds and certain visual shapes. The most typical research finding is that people, when presented with nonsense words, tend to associate certain "soft" sounds (like bouba and maluma) with a rounded shape and other "hard" sounds (like kiki and takete) with a spiky shape. Its discovery dates back to the 1920s, when psychologists documented experimental participants as connecting nonsense words to shapes in consistent ways.