A simple yet impossible test

Synesthesia (or synaesthesia British spelling) is a phenomenon in which stimulating one sense or thought automatically triggers another. For example, someone with synesthesia might see colors when they think of numbers, see shapes when they smell certain scents, or taste flavors when they read words.

To take the test you may wish to make an account → skip providing researcher's email → skip personal questions → select grapheme to color or other type of synesthesia → begin test. There is also a demo of the color picker available to play with on the site (not account needed).

Thanks to my editor @BarknoorZ for sharing her experience!

Editing by Noor Hanania

[shawngoral]

Studies and tests like these are so humbling. They show us that there are multiple ways to perceive the world. It can really be that we all see the world differently.

It's made me realize how judgemental of other people's experiences we can be without knowing that their perception can be really so different.

[mnevula]

i think you meant to title this "This is what a synesthesia test smells like"

[Nora-transspire]

When I was around 7 I wrote down letters and numbers in my own colors to repeat that later to check if they're consistent. I noticed I had color associations pretty early and asked all the people around me how their letters looked, but no one had proper answers.
I then forgot about that piece of paper for a couple of years and found it while tidying up and instantly wrote them down again without looking and almost all matched up pretty identical, although I forgot I had these associations at all.
10 years later I took pretty much the same test online and got super low variance. I had quite a lot of letters where I pinpointed the exact same color. I was kinda surprised, but not overwhelmingly so. It was pretty intuitive and easy for me and I didn't think of it that much.
I don't project the colors tho. Maybe a teeny tiny bit sometimes, but it is more mental for me. I might even have some aphantasia (still not sure tho :D )
Oh and I think I get asmr, but often times it's unpleasant and strong and leads to twitches. Some are good tho :P
And as side info: I'm autistic with adhd.
I hope this big bunch of info and stories about my synesthesia is interesting to someone :D

7 is dark blue, almost black!!

[saikirannarayanaswami]

Reminds me of Philip J Fry from Futurama : "hey what smells like blue?" "did everything taste purple for a second?"

[stephaniemiller]

I actually have chromesthesia (sound/music to color synesthesia) & I just took these tests recently to identify the color assiociations I have whenever I hear musical keys & instruments. I ended up scoring below a 1.0 on both of them. I also find it interesting that you mentioned in the video how most people who have synesthesia end up in creative fields because I'm actually a graphic designer/illustrator & often use my synesthesia as a bit of an aid in my creative process. 😄👍

[ronniesan]

I don't care if Mondays blue, Tuesdays grey and Wednesday too. Thursday I don't care about you, it's Friday I'm in love! Sorry, I just had to!

[DavenMathies]

Seeing the illustrations of synesthete number lines and calendars you selected from Wednesday Is Indigo Blue awakened something in me. I’m 40 years old and still get lost trying to follow a regular calendar because that’s not how I see weeks, months, and years. But I immediately recognized and understood those illustrations; even if they aren’t exactly what I see, the “logic” behind them was clearly the same as whatever my brain is doing. I always knew I had mild synesthesia; I didn’t realize my circular calendar or meandering number line was part of it. And I had no idea other people saw things that way, too.

[Astrofrank]

My ex-girlfried had synesthesia and attached colors to, for example, voices. She didn't like red voices, fortunately mine was orange or, if calm, had a special type of blue.

[OneTrueBadShoe]

This was a very cool video. Even though I knew what synesthesia was, there was a lot about it that I didn't know.
I scored a 2.38.
I got the result that I kind of expected. Even though I tried to memorize several, I was only really consistent with one of them and somewhat consistent with four more.

[henrikdegnes]

I think with spacial locations to sequences. I had no idea this was considered as synesthesia. It's so much a part of how I think that it is impossible for me to imagine how people think without it. Thank you for mentioning it, I will research it more

EDIT: It turns out my daugther has numbers to color synesthesia. Number 7 is dark green

[bryanmcdermott]

This intrigues and befuddles me, but I'm colorblind. Thank you for this enlightening video.

[VestaRoleplay]

Whenever I watch a movie where a dark indoor scene shifts to a bright, outdoor one (like when a door opens in a dark room to reveal sunlight, car noises, and people talking) I get an overwhelming smell of 'outside'. It's like my brain blends the visual and sound cues with a strong scent, even though it's not really there.

[geannevandenbeukel]

Thank you for this video! My son who studies mathematics sent me the link. It turns out he sees colors with numbers. And I myself have time-space synaesthesia, I see shapes in time. So cool to discover that there are more people who have these variations of perception!

[douglasboyle]

You should look into aphantasia which is an interesting situation where people don't visualize in their mind's eye, it's just empty. I only discovered this was a thing a few years ago, for my entire life before that I always just thought when people talked about seeing things in their mind's eye, it was just a metaphor.

[KjO-ko]

I’ve always been fascinated by the phenomenon of cultural synesthesia. For example in the Igbo language you would say “can you hear that smell” or can you “see that feeling”

[dragoncarver]

I'm 73. I have always felt "different" or maybe "wierd". After all these years i have finally described me as "seeing more than people expect me to see and seeing things other people seem to have no clue is even there to see." I recognize people sometimes by the timber of their voice, the specific way they form words, an odd way of holding their head, an unusual genetic shape that isn't "common". My dad was like that as well. I have since stopped thinking I'm wierd. I'm just me. =)😀

[connormc]

I have very minor associative synesthesia. Multiples of 3 are green, powers of 2 are red, 5 is yellow, 0 is white and 1 is an off-black red

[SatharielBattle]

OMG "Sequences to spatial location", it has a name!!! and i'm not the only one!!! I always viewed numbers in sort of stairs with platform, and the seasons as a wheel with dates in them

[Iloom]

I'm a musician and a writer. I frequently use my synesthesia in all of my creative work. I'm also a polyglot, and the synesthetic reactions for me get really wild when getting into other languages, kind of like hearing/using tuning systems from other cultures.

For me, 7 and 6 are almost the same color, which is almost like sand. I frequently get them confused in English and in other languages, even if the other languages have a different color for the numbers because of how strongly numbers are hardwired in our native tongue.

[kebu]

I've always wanted to participate. I discovered I had this only in my mid teenage years, where I realized people didn't see things the way I did. Later I noticed how it affects my art, memory, and daily life with meeting people. I scored 0.60 in my alphabet and numbers test. It was so satisfying to see all of my choices lined up in the end, all in the same perfect colors. And I am very much an Associator, I don't hallucinate it in the physical world. Thank you for sharing so I can finally see my condition with clear results 💕