[alok99]

From the article: Without being told which shape was which,

> 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 in a consistent way

So apart from visually impaired (from birth) people, we may have a pattern in mapping shapes to phonemes.

[saberdancer]

My guess is that the shape of our mouth/tongue makes us choose "bouba" for the rounded shape.

[haecceity]

Why did I choose something else??

[rjmorris]

I'm guessing because you misunderstood the question. The question in the research was something like, "Which one of these shapes is called 'bouba' and which is called 'kiki'?" There was no option to invent your own word.