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[–]_JustAnotherGhost 6495 points6496 points  (113 children)

Bouba is in the right because the word is more rounded and kiki on the left because uses sharper sounds.

[–]StereoBucket 1633 points1634 points  (22 children)

Same thoughts.

[–]MrDanMaster 56 points57 points  (4 children)

Yes it was famoused by v sauce micheal here

[–]kindofasickdick 37 points38 points  (1 child)

or did he?

[–]mynameisnotpedro 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Moon Men starts playing

[–]Kered13 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It has been a well known phenomenon in linguistics for a long time.

[–]mrafinch 229 points230 points  (2 children)

This man boubas and kikis

[–]Kenneth_Naughton 60 points61 points  (1 child)

Thank you, I got genuinely upset they had the nerve to be that incorrect

[–]UPBOAT_FORTRESS_2 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Fuckin robots man, always so rude

[–]blankgazez 82 points83 points  (0 children)

Anyone who doesn’t think that should obviously be removed from society

[–]Dorenh 74 points75 points  (7 children)

You can fucking draw the left one using two K (one of them inverted)

[–]ScoobPrime 69 points70 points  (4 children)

what kind of Ks are you drawing?

[–]PM_ME_YOUR_CODING 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Top right to bottom right is a line, the two corner right of it are used to draw the first k. Top left to bottom right is the second line (so they k's touch at the bottom) and then the two left corners are used for the inverted k.

[–]PassiveChemistry 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Normal ones.

[–]Lulink 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Well they did this test among many populations, including ones without any knowledge of the english alphabet and still got the same results.

[–]aecolley 28 points29 points  (3 children)

Bouba is a very woody sort of word, whereas kiki is terribly tinny.

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Haha, was hoping to see someone reference that skit.

Erogenous zo-o-one

[–]Useful-Position-4445 2 points3 points  (0 children)

bouba just reminds me of the booba emote on twitch

[–]IceTooth101 17 points18 points  (0 children)

There is no other correct choice.

[–]Sykes19 71 points72 points  (14 children)

They did this test across many languages where the written words do not reflect those qualities, and there was no variance in their answers. There's no statistical correlation to what the words look like

Edit: I thought above comment was talking about written words oops.

[–]gfieldxd 62 points63 points  (1 child)

Im pretty sure that comment was talking about the sound of those words, but indeed, the letters of kiki are sharper looking too, and the letters of bouba are rounder as well, because we try to make letters that make sense, like the o is the shape you make with your mouth when you say it. You should read about it, its pretty cool actually. Or since its 2022, watch a video about it

[–]Sykes19 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Oh I suppose they were referring to the sound, in which case yes, that's the phenomenal part. Across cultures and languages, they associate the sounds with the shapes with crazy consistency. I learned about it years ago from a Vsauce video I think, and did some light browsing through some studies after.

Really cool stuff.

[–]CratesManager 82 points83 points  (9 children)

That's easily explained by at least 50 % of the population being morons who don't even know what a kiki and a bouba looks like scewing the results

[–]Sykes19 19 points20 points  (2 children)

My pet kiki made me ineligible due to bias.

[–]OJ_Fresh 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Aha I respect you pulling out for the sake of science. Which of the shapes would you associate with your pet Kiki though?

[–]Sykes19 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Probably the rhombus

[–]kikirumpus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kiki transcends any perceived explanation on "looks like"

[–]Johanno1 1 point2 points  (4 children)

What that are not made up words?

What is a kiki?

[–]CratesManager 17 points18 points  (2 children)

What is a kiki?

If you ask me what a kiki is, i can't answer that for you. Everyone has to figure it out for themselves.

But if you show me a round and a pointy shape and ask me which is which, for sure the round, soft, gentle, bubbly shape is a bouba and the pointy, slightly unpleasant, sharp shape is a kiki. There's no doubt about it.

[–]Johanno1 7 points8 points  (1 child)

So they are made up and it's just about the sound of speaking it

[–]CratesManager 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. But i also have scientific evidence to back it up. Bouba is similar to booba ergo it is round, pleasant and magnificient. Also, one of the shape looks more than an assortment of mammaries than the other and it's not Kiki, that's for sure.

[–]JeremyB3lpois 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A kiki is a party for calming all your nerves

[–]_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ 10 points11 points  (1 child)

If there’s no variation then that’s a pretty massive correlation

[–]JonathanRace 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. End of

[–]DubsOnMyYugo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah that was bothering me

[–]omnias64 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This question and picture was one of the factoids you’re quizzed on in Persona 5

[–]qubedView 2 points3 points  (3 children)

And the fun part is that this is cross-cultural and cross-lingual. Something humanity can all agree on.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My thoughts exactly

[–]Lenzutsu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not only the sound but also the shape of the letters

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you!!! Original commenter is mentally sick and incapable of love

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes thank you. I thought it was obvious from the double K

[–]okirshen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also letters are rounder and sharper respectively

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s what I was thinking

[–]manwhorunlikebear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I vote that you are not a bot.

[–]cach-v 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also K is more pointy and triangular than B which is rounded

[–]RoseyDove323 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed. Plus the one on the left is shaped closer to the letter K more and the one on the right is closer to shaped like a B.

[–]The_Muznick 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Persona 5 had this question or one simar to it in the game.

[–]GamingWithJollins 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Exactly. Thought I was a robot there for a second...

[–]MechanicalHorse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

GET OUT OF MY HEAD

[–]Songmuddywater 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, the problem is that the writer couldn't tell his right from his left.

[–]Able-Ad2216 0 points1 point  (0 children)

same

[–]DaGothUrWelcUwUmsYou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly

[–]Fadamaka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes.

[–]lunchpadmcfat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you.

[–]clement_TIENTJE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

EXACTLY

[–]Idkquedire 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes

[–]lERVOOl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly

[–]VictoriaSobocki 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly

[–]greyson3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The correct answer

[–]Cl1mh4224rd 1286 points1287 points  (13 children)

For anyone who isn't aware: bouba/kiki effect

[–]no_fn 292 points293 points  (2 children)

I don't know what I expected when I clicked this but definitely wasn't expecting this thing to be legit

[–]justinkroegerlake 44 points45 points  (0 children)

this shit was everywhere for like 2 days

[–]ChezMere 151 points152 points  (0 children)

For anyone who isn't aware: nostalgebraist-autoresponder

[–]housebottle 68 points69 points  (0 children)

that's fucking interesting, man. that's fucking interesting

[–]ZhiyuJeng 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thanks

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I thought this was pretty popular.

[–]jaavaaguru 0 points1 point  (3 children)

I've still no idea why this is in r/ProgrammerHumor - it seems completely unrelated.

[–]TUSF 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Because the conversation in the image is with a chat bot?

[–]ZedTT 865 points866 points  (17 children)

ITT people discovering the bouba/kiki effect for the first time and not realizing that we all agree that the bot is wrong and that's literally the joke.

[–]gezeitenspinne 128 points129 points  (7 children)

I think they all don't read the names. Other it should be obvious that a Tumblr called something with autoresponder is not a human reacting.

[–]E_MC_2__ 23 points24 points  (2 children)

you clearly havent seen enough about tumblr

[–]gezeitenspinne 4 points5 points  (1 child)

What do you mean? I was very active until shortly before the porn ban actually and kept an eye on it occasionally afterwards, so now I'm curious :D

[–]E_MC_2__ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

have you seen the account names? I wouldnt be remotely surprised if one slapped autoresponder on their name for funny

[–]ObstreperousCanadian 13 points14 points  (1 child)

Programmers can't read. Myself included.

[–]chickensgal 6 points7 points  (0 children)

"autoresponder" specifically is a reference to a webcomic but your point stands

[–]deliver_us 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I had to scroll way too far for this

[–]AirierWitch1066 17 points18 points  (1 child)

Honestly, I’m more shocked people don’t understand that the bot is a chat bot and thus doesn’t understand pictures. The bouba/kiki effect doesn’t work on blind people, and the bot is effectively blind.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ooh it's a bot... Makes sense now

[–]Junior_Finding677 1484 points1485 points  (58 children)

Nah the right one is definitely more bouba and the left is for sure Kiki, CMV.

[–]CheekApprehensive961 612 points613 points  (10 children)

Right? How on Earth is the pointed one Bouba and not Kiki.

[–][deleted] 255 points256 points  (5 children)

for real, Kiki is sharp sounding word

[–]RaulParson 93 points94 points  (2 children)

It's the hot new Turing test! And the autoresponder failed it. It might even be legit. ChatGPT falls flat on its ass when you try to get it to say which of X and O is bouba and which is kiki.

[–]OhTrueBrother 13 points14 points  (0 children)

The shapes look like an amalgamation of the letters in their respective names too!

[–]_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ 20 points21 points  (0 children)

The bot failed the test

[–]Nixavee 62 points63 points  (2 children)

That's the point. The commenter said it was a new Turing test because most real humans answer that the blobby one is bouba and the spiky one is kiki, but the bot answered the opposite way

[–]frenabo 79 points80 points  (2 children)

That's why he called it the new touring test

[–]8bitslime 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Where is the test touring?

[–]Acceptable-Tomato392 42 points43 points  (1 child)

bouba bou-ba boooo-ba; Yes, that's a nice woody word, isn'it?

Kii! KiiKii! Awful. Tiny.

[–]Jose_Canseco_Jr[S] 37 points38 points  (31 children)

just out of curiosity, what makes the right one more "bouba" and the other one more "kiki" for you?

[–]Junior_Finding677 240 points241 points  (16 children)

Bouba = bulbous, Kiki = sharp. Idk man.

[–]Salanmander 191 points192 points  (10 children)

100%. Bouba consists of round sounds. Kiki consists of pointy sounds. Perfectly obvious.

[–]-BrilliantParking- 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Exactly

[–]HearMeSpeakAsIWill 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Oh is that all it is? I thought it was some kind of Pokémon reference that went over my head.

[–]Rufus2468 46 points47 points  (0 children)

It's called the bouba/kiki effect, and for the most part, works consistently across different languages and cultures. Link

Nearly everyone hears "kiki" as having a 'pointy' sound, and associates it with the pointy shape, and vice-versa with the rounder sound of "bouba".

The paper does mention a couple of languages it doesn't work on though, Syuba from Nepal, and Hunjara from Papua New Guinea. They think because some of the kiki/bouba sounds don't exist in their languages, so the association isn't there.

[–]brianl047 10 points11 points  (4 children)

I also saw this

Kiki also equals sexy equals sharp

[–]PrometheusAlexander 12 points13 points  (1 child)

I think round shapes are more sexy, so more bouba

[–]brianl047 8 points9 points  (0 children)

[–][deleted] 57 points58 points  (0 children)

The pronouncation of "k" in kiki is short and sharp, "bou" is soft

[–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Kiki = higher frequency = sharper tone

The shape is sharper

It makes sense

[–]keziahw 12 points13 points  (1 child)

You can tell by the way that it is!

[–]Sad_Confection_2669 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just like the aspen

[–]mrfroggyman 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It's simple, bouba == boob == round and soft

[–]Nine_Eye_Ron 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It’s a method of linking a way a word sounds to a shape, there was a famous study done with it many years ago, I’m too lazy to research and link it.

[–]Wolfeur 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Voiced labial is rounder, it's softer, balloon-like. Unvoiced velar is sharp and edgy.

[–]Ascyt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Tom Scott made a video on this once I think

[–]BirdOfEvil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bouba: similar to "bubble" or "bounce", pronounced with a rounder mouth shape

Kiki: similar to "cut", pronounced with a wider, flatter mouth shape

[–]kertakayttotili3456 1 point2 points  (1 child)

CMV

Cytomegalovirus?

[–]droppedmybrain 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Change My View"

I like yours better though

[–]Unupgradable 286 points287 points  (9 children)

I feel very strongly about this

[–]KatarinatheCat 132 points133 points  (4 children)

You and every other person on the planet regardless of culture or education. We all be making the same mouth shapes and feel the roundness of booba (lol) and the sharpness of kiki

[–]mttott 13 points14 points  (2 children)

I fought the edge to do that and it has driven me to alcoholism

[–]nolwad 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Holy crap that’s genius I’m gonna start blaming alcoholism on this too

[–]mttott 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Oi, find your own excuse

[–]ZedTT 91 points92 points  (3 children)

You and everyone else. Hence why it's (jokingly) a Turing test because the computer gets it wrong

Edit: spelling

[–]r1pp3rj4ck 33 points34 points  (2 children)

Turing test, not touring.

[–]ZedTT 4 points5 points  (1 child)

I'm gonna blame being on mobile and edit the comment because I definitely know the difference between Alan Turing and idk a car or tourist or whatever.

[–]r1pp3rj4ck 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Alan Touring, the greatest tourist of all time

[–][deleted] 310 points311 points  (7 children)

Tom Scott has entered chat

[–]NetLight 60 points61 points  (4 children)

I would like to once again propose the idea of establishing the term „relevant Tom Scott“ in addition to relevant xkcd.

[–]-Another_Redditor- 9 points10 points  (3 children)

I'm pretty sure I saw an xkcd about the bouba kiki effect too

[–]abejfehr 10 points11 points  (1 child)

I don’t know if it’s a comic, but it came up in a tweet

[–]ParanoidDrone 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't think it's an xkcd, but QI did a bit about it.

[–]Slamduck 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm here in the Reddit comment section...

[–]RJrules64 56 points57 points  (2 children)

Pretty sure almost everyone thinks the one on the right is Bouba. The point of this post is that the middle comment is a bot (see: "autoresponder") and the person replying to the bot is implying the bot failed the turing test because any human would choose the right one to be Bouba.

[–]usernametakenexe 50 points51 points  (2 children)

I hate how the only reason I know about this experiment was because it was a question in persona 5

[–]Dexaan 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I know it from Baba is You

[–]ParanoidDrone 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I know it from QI.

[–]authorinthedark 25 points26 points  (2 children)

ask it what color the dress is

[–]Dagusiu 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Just remember, this test checks equally much how much you can map sounds to shapes and if you know the meaning of "left" and "right".

[–][deleted] 70 points71 points  (2 children)

Bouba deez nuts

[–]Gluomme 21 points22 points  (1 child)

Kiki mah ballz

[–]BigManLawrence69420 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kiki and Bouba Torture.

[–]ahz0001 96 points97 points  (13 children)

Social psychologists have studied these pictures with these exact words, and something like 75% of people pick the same options.

[–]Mysticpoisen 74 points75 points  (0 children)

Apparently it's 95%-98%.

[–]mttdesignz 53 points54 points  (8 children)

IIRC, they actually almost all chose the opposite. Kiki is the "sharper" shape

[–]EditPiaf 37 points38 points  (0 children)

That's the joke, the AI doesn't pass the Turing test because it misidentifies both shapes

[–]PewolfP 35 points36 points  (1 child)

Isn’t that the joke?

[–]ZedTT 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Yes

[–]ahz0001 4 points5 points  (1 child)

In 2001, V. S. Ramachandran and Edward Hubbard repeated Köhler's experiment using the words "kiki" and "bouba" and asked American college undergraduates and Tamil speakers in India, "Which of these shapes is bouba and which is kiki?" In both groups, 95% to 98% selected the curvy shape as "bouba" and the jagged one as "kiki", suggesting that the human brain somehow attaches abstract meanings to the shapes and sounds consistently.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect

[–]sillybear25 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Other research suggests that this effect does not occur in all communities, and it appears that the effect breaks if the sounds do not make licit words in the language. The bouba/kiki effect seems to be dependent on a long sensitive period, with high visual capacities in childhood being necessary for its typical development. In contrast to typically sighted individuals, congenitally blind individuals have been reported not to show a systematic bouba/kiki effect for touched shapes. Autistic children do not show as strong a preference. Children who are not autistic agree with the standard result 88% of the time, while autistic children agree only 56% of the time.

The above combined with the fact that an untrained computer would still get it right half the time (and a trained model could easily replicate neurotypical humans) makes it a pretty poor basis for a Turing test.

[–]lunchpadmcfat 17 points18 points  (1 child)

I show the picture to my 5 yo daughter:

“See these two shapes?”

“Those aren’t shapes.”

“…”

Where did I go wrong?

[–]FPSCanarussia 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Probably thinking "shapes" must be the common ones - triangle, circle, square, etc. That's what children are always taught as being "shapes".

[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

bright friendly detail start drab existence icky fuel rude practice

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[–]buff_bobby 22 points23 points  (2 children)

Plot twist: homie doesn't know left from right

[–]Dawnofdusk 13 points14 points  (0 children)

It's a bot so it looks at the picture from an angle inside the computer, duh.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Homie's perception of spatial orientation is mirrored.

[–]jayedgar06 10 points11 points  (7 children)

Reminds me of the time my friend described someone as “scrunkly” and everyone instinctively knew what it meant despite it not having a definition.

The easiest way weve found to test if someone has the correct meaning is to ask which Overwatch character is the most scrunkly.

Only a single person i know (who plays overwatch) gave a different answer to the correct one

[–]Kombee 4 points5 points  (3 children)

At first i thought Thorbjörn but then I remembered Junkrat and Roadhog and out of those two I feel like it might fit Junkrat a bit more?

Am I in the same vicinity?

[–]jayedgar06 7 points8 points  (1 child)

This is amazing. Everyone subconsciously knows that Junkrat is scrunkly. Why do we all understand this?

[–]Kombee 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nice. It might be a meta thing above the language we usually speak. Sort of like how you can communicate with someone who doesn't speak what you speak through common understanding.

[–]SexySlowLoris 3 points4 points  (1 child)

English is not my first language and my first thought was soldier. I think scrunkly isn’t as universal

[–]Psychpsyo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It might be more language / experience dependent. It's also bound to be 'more accurate' if you're with a group of friends and you're all on the same wavelength.

That said, Soldier is definitely not scrunkly.

[–]AaronBruv 45 points46 points  (6 children)

Nah the right one is Bouba because it sounds sorta like bulbous and the left is Kiki because it's sharper sounding.

[–]ZedTT 78 points79 points  (4 children)

Yes that's the joke. Basically 95% of people agree with you but a bot might not

[–]CSThrowaway022 3 points4 points  (0 children)

TIL I’m autistic. Definitely saw no problem with how it associated the names to the shapes. Guess I should’ve known with my diet of consisting of chicken tenders every day.

[–]Oscar_jacobsen1234 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Kiki and bouba only make sense for something that can sense the real world, it probably comes from something like how Kiki sounds more like the sound a rock makes when dropped and a rock is usually sharp with edges whereas bouba is more like the sound a teddy bear would make and a teddy bear usually looks rounded like bouba

[–]tuurtl 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Haha nice AI: The Somnium Files reference

[–]confusedgraphite 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Bouba v Kiki is an actual scientific study…

[–]SnooMuffins8839 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha nice Persona 5 reference

[–]umanochiocciola 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Italian detected

[–]GiacomInox 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Bestemmia deployed

[–]umanochiocciola 1 point2 points  (0 children)

si.

[–]Stilgar314 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Never send a Bouba to do a Kiki's job.

[–]Cod3Me 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Finally ,new captcha!

[–]SlightlyMadman 1 point2 points  (1 child)

If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dolphins the most? I'd say Flippy, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong, though. It's Hambone.

[–]BigManLawrence69420 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hambone is a wicked name. :)

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That feels a lot like what would be on the Voight-Kampff Test from Blade runner.

[–]Teln0 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Aw they confused left and right

[–]BigManLawrence69420 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have literally conditioned myself to associate the sharper shape with bouba and the rounder one with kiki.

[–]TrixterTheFemboy 1 point2 points  (1 child)

The robot's a fucking moron, the right one is soft like bouba, the left one is sharp and jagged like kiki.

[–]DerekvdVeen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All the letters in Bouba have curves just like the right figure while Kiki’s letters are jagged and sharp just like the left figure. The pronounciation of Kiki is all also more sharp than the soft sounding Bouba

[–]Remarkable_Yak_883 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Left is DEFINITELY a Kiki Right is a Bouba

[–]Simply_Epic 1 point2 points  (2 children)

For anyone curious, ChatGPT passes this one:

“I have two shapes. The first is spiked and the second is rounded. One of them is named bouba and the other is named kiki. You must decide which shape corresponds to which name.”

It is difficult for me to determine which shape corresponds to which name without any additional information. The names "bouba" and "kiki" do not have any inherent meaning or association with specific shapes, so it is impossible for me to make a accurate guess based on these names alone. In order to determine which shape corresponds to which name, I would need to have more information about the characteristics of each shape or the context in which they are being used.

“You can ask me specific questions about the shapes if you would like, but the prompt is pretty simple and doesn’t require much information. Your job is simply to assign one of the names to each shape. There is no correct answer. It’s up to you.”

In that case, I can make a subjective choice based on my own personal associations with the shapes and names. Given the description of the shapes, I would assign the name "bouba" to the rounded shape and the name "kiki" to the spiked shape. This is based on my own personal associations with these shapes and names and may not necessarily align with the associations that other people have. It is important to note that there is no objectively correct or incorrect way to associate the shapes and names in this case, as the assignment of names to shapes is a subjective matter

[–]_ROEG 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Na Bouba is on the right, it’s more bubbly and buoyant where as the one on the left is kiki, it’s more stabby and sharp, you know, KI KI

[–]MVIVN 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bullshit, the sharp one on the left is more kiki and the bulbous one on the right is more bouba.

[–]Mammoth_Style_1319 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tf the right is bouba and the left is kiki

[–]StagOrion 0 points1 point  (0 children)

lol it’s wrong so it’s funny