Research Design Connection: Circles and Angles – Associations

by Sally Augustin, Ph.D. | February 15th, 2016

Jiang, Gorn, Galli and Chattopadhyay probed associations made to circles and more angular shapes used in logos. They learned via a series of experiments that “the mere circularity and angularity of a brand logo is powerful enough to affect perceptions of the attributes of a product or company…circular- versus angular-logo shapes activate softness and hardness associations, respectively, and these concepts subsequently influence product/company attribute…there are shape effects even when the shape is incidentally exposed beforehand…rather than being a part of the logo itself.” Yuwei Jiang, Gerald Gorn, Maria Galli, and Amitava Chattopadhyay. “Does Your Company Have the Right Logo? How and Why Circular- and Angular-Logo Shapes Influence Brand Attribute Judgments.” Journal of Consumer Research, in press. Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences …