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Why spiky shapes seem angry and round sounds are calming

digest.bps.org.uk

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Re: Why spiky shapes seem angry and round sounds are calming

#2
'we automatically associate variations in one particular property of images or sounds with variations in levels of emotional arousal.'

The future is going to be great, the implications of these findings seem obvious: auto-tune for my voice is coming so that people think I am thrilled that they called.

To monetize it, they can sell it to contact centres so that sales reps sound super engaged and interesting, and customer support reps seem genuinely concerned.

Re: Why spiky shapes seem angry and round sounds are calming

#5
post #2

'we automatically associate variations in one particular property of images or sounds with variations in levels of emotional arousal.' The future is going to be great, the implications of these findings seem obvious: auto-tune for my voice is coming so that people think I am thrilled that they called. To monetize it, they can sell it to contact centres so that sales reps sound super engaged and interesting, and custo…

That should be a fairly straightforward application of the same techniques that transfer style between images.

Re: Why spiky shapes seem angry and round sounds are calming

#9
post #6

Seems similar to the Bouba/Kiki effect [1] where we automatically associate spiky and smooth shapes with certain names. I did this test with my toddler and he chose “correctly.” [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect

They mention this in the article:

This process could also account for the classic “cross-modal” finding, first reported in 1929 and replicated around the world many times since, that people tend to pair a blobby shape with a word-sound like “bouba” and a spiky shape with a word like “kiki”.

Re: Why spiky shapes seem angry and round sounds are calming

#10
post #7

Spiky shapes are like a dog showing its teeth or the fur standing up along its back. It's how animals and even plants get you to keep your distance.

I figure this has to be it. In nature spikes are almost always dangerous, whereas blobs are almost always relatively safe objects (typically soft, et cet).
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