Abstract shapes show affective traits

Two experiments are presented concerning the Takete/Maluma phenomenon, which involves presenting participants with two abstract shapes (one curvy/roundish, the other angular/pointy) and two non-words (one characterised by a ‘smooth’ sound, the other by a ‘sharp’ sound). Participants tend to associate the curvy shape with the smooth sounding non-word, and the angular shape with the sharp sounding non-word. Our research expands on such phenomenon by investigating the correspondence between abstract shapes and affective traits. In experiment 1, 122 native Italian speakers were presented with nine abstract shapes and ten non-words: three characterised as sharp sounding, three as soft sounding, two as mixed sounding, and two which sounds may remotely recall the name of geometrical figures (tigano for triangolo-triangle; kiquoda for quadrato-square). Each shape was presented singularly, and participants had two tasks: 1) choose a name for the shape among the list of non-words; 2) select an affective trait that best described the shape (good, bad, angry, sad, scared, joyful, calm, pleasant, bored, melancholic). In Experiment 2, 193 native Russian speakers saw the same visual stimuli; the tasks associated with each shape were three: 1) choose a name for the shape from the list of non-words (transposed into Cyrillic); 2) choose a non-word that best describes the shape from a list of non-words (the Italian affective words transposed into Cyrillic); 3) select an affective trait that best described the shape from the list of words translated into Russian (experiment 1, task 2). Results: a) the naming task did not lead to clearcut results in either experiment; b) the assignment of affective traits (task 2 exp. 1; task 3 exp 2) were practically identical in both experiments; c) the assignment of non-words derived from Italian affective words transposed into Cyrillic (task 2 exp. 2) was basically random, not influenced by how they sound.