Assessing crossmodal correspondences in exotic fruit juices: the case of shape and sound symbolism.

摘要

We report a series of experiments designed to investigate shape and sound symbolism, or what is sometimes referred to as crossmodal correspondences, in a range of commercial fruit pulps/juices. In the experiments reported here, British and Colombian participants tasted a number of fruit juices (including pineapple, lulo, guanabana, passion fruit, mango and feijoa) before filling in a series of pencil-and-paper line scales. The results revealed that those juices that were considered sweet and low in sourness were consistently matched with rounder shapes and speech sounds, sounds with a lower pitched, and were generally liked more. Meanwhile, those juices that were rated as tasting sour were consistently matched with angular shapes, sharper speech sounds, sounds with a higher pitch, and were liked less. These results have a number of potentially important implications for the packaging and labeling of fruit juices, especially in those countries where the fruit juices may currently be unfamiliar to consumers. All rights reserved, Elsevier.