Is Bouba Sweet and Kiki Sour?:

It is well established that the shape of food packaging can influence taste perception.Focusing on the Bouba-Kiki effect, this study investigated how organic, rounded shapes and angular shapes on product packages affect taste evaluations from the perspective of brand anthropomorphism.The results showed that Bouba-type shapes enhanced perceived brand warmth, which in turn increased the perceived sweetness of the food.In contrast, Kiki-type shapes had only a limited effect on perceived brand competence and on the perception of bitterness and sourness.However, brand competence, along with brand warmth, positively contributed to overall taste evaluation.These findings suggest that packaging designs that simultaneously enhance both warmth and competence through anthropomorphic visual cues can be particularly effective.This study also extends research on cross-modal correspondence by showing that packaging shape both modulates sensory impressions and influences taste perception via brand-related social cognition.