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Dogs Seem to Agree With Humans That 'Bouba' Is Round And 'Kiki' Is Spiky : ScienceAlert (opens in a new tab)

sciencealert.com · 2026-10-13

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Not a single study

No clear answer.

The article covers a research area rather than reporting a specific new paper, so there is no single study to check it against.

Checked against the study summary. The full text wasn't available, so some details couldn't be settled either way.

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This story isn't reporting one study.

The article covers a research area rather than reporting a specific new paper, so there is no single study to check it against.

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No single source study.

The article covers a research area rather than reporting a specific new paper, so there is no single study to check it against.

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and 11 more considered

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Claim 1 of 6Not checkedA new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests dogs may follow the Bouba/Kiki sound-shape association.View evidenceHide evidence

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NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.

Claim 2 of 6Not checkedThe researchers recruited 70 domestic dogs for two almost identical experiments.View evidenceHide evidence

As stated70 domestic dogs

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NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.

Claim 3 of 6Not checkedOver roughly 15 minutes, dogs were exposed to alternating 'Bouba' and 'Kiki' sounds paired with round and spiky shapes, and the dogs' head direction was tracked from video to look for statistically significant patterns.View evidenceHide evidence

As statedroughly 15 minutes

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NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.

Claim 4 of 6Not checkedThe article says dogs looked significantly more at the rounded shape when 'Bouba' was played, and at the spiky shape when 'Kiki' was played.View evidenceHide evidence

As statedsignificantly more

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NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.

Claim 5 of 6Not checkedIn the first experiment, dogs showed a general bias toward looking at spiky shapes, but that bias disappeared in the second experiment when owners wore headphones.View evidenceHide evidence

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NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.

Claim 6 of 6Not checkedThe article cautions that more research is needed before scientists can definitively say dogs associate 'Bouba' with round shapes and 'Kiki' with sharp ones.View evidenceHide evidence

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NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.

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PubMed, Europe PMC, Crossref · 15 candidate papers

And 10 more candidates considered.