

Why Ice Cream Sounds Fat and Crackers Sound Skinny - jestinjoy1
http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=63151

======
spion
Interesting. Given the questions:

    
    
        Which brand of laptop seems bigger, Detal or Dutal?
        Which brand of vacuum cleaner seems heavier, Keffi or Kuffi?
        Which brand of ketchup seems thicker, Nellen or Nullen?
    

The first question may have affected the answers to the others. "Dutal" may
trigger an association chain "Duty" -> "Heavy Duty" -> "Large", and then
naturally all the other answers should be consistent with that one. Is there a
mechanism scientists use to defend against such a "snowballing" effect?

~~~
lanna
Yes, ask the questions in random order

------
porker
I wonder how much pronunciation affects the results. Given their questions:

    
    
        Which brand of laptop seems bigger, Detal or Dutal?
        Which brand of vacuum cleaner seems heavier, Keffi or Kuffi?
        Which brand of ketchup seems thicker, Nellen or Nullen?
    

In British English I only chose the 'u' for the second question (the first by
association - Detal = metal). How would US Americans pronounce these?

~~~
stronglikedan
Deh-tal, Doo-tal, Keh-fi, Kuh-fi, Neh-len, Nuh-len

------
Vraxx
Hmmm, I don't think I saw any other languages besides Spanish and English, is
this really a universal effect across languages?

I am especially curious because I am inclined to believe that certain sounds
are not distributed the same in all languages. This could mean that either
this theory is untested on a broader set of languages, or that the typical
vernacular in a language tends to avoid a certain type of word more than other
languages.

------
LesZedCB
I actually have the opposite reaction in a way. When I hear ice cream in my
head, I hear something like Julie Andrews saying it, and it sounds sweet and
light. With cracker it has a thick American accent and sounds harsh and dense.
I am from the US.

~~~
viewer5
What do you mean by "thick American accent"?

~~~
pessimizer
Is there something confusing about the idea of an American accent? Americans
certainly have no problem talking about an English accent as if Cockneys sound
anything like Scousers. To American ears, of course, they actually do, because
those accents share some characteristics that are nearly absent from all
American accents (and vice-versa.)

~~~
viewer5
> Americans certainly have no problem talking about an English accent as if
> Cockneys sound anything like Scousers. To American ears, of course, they
> actually do

As an American, I wouldn't say that; while I would say "English accent" in
conversation, to me that means something more specific than just "anything
from England", but less specific than one specific accent; in my head it's
"James Bond but not Sean Connery" (I'm not very familiar with those movies, so
I don't know the different actors). They probably have different specific
accents, but they're similar-ish to me (in my limited exposure), but not
something I'd ever confuse with like, Cockney (that being the only specific
English accent I know by name).

So yeah, I'm not sure what he means by American accent. Being more familiar
with the different regional accents, I'm curious which one he's referring to,
since they're so diverse. I casually expected that since the US is so big,
geographically, people might have more specific ideas of regional American
accents.

You're probably right about the "because those accents share some
characteristics", though. American accents sound so distinct to me, I never
really thought about them being all sharing something distinctively American-
identifying about them; I wonder what it is about them.

~~~
pessimizer
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_English_regiona...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_English_regional_phonology#General_American)

It's not mysterious, it's well studied and documented:)

~~~
viewer5
Didn't cross my mind to check there. Thanks for the link.

------
joshuahedlund
As an outsider, the uncited studies sound suspiciously like the sort of thing
that is guaranteed to generate statistically significant values with enough
iterations...

------
uberalex
Does Frozen yogurt follow this logic? It seems like a harder sounding word
might imply the health effects

------
ttty
Once I've found a paper studying the brand names and how to create new ones
that feels right and communicates the image you want.

~~~
tmmm
Yes, those were some fun times.

