Mounting evidence demonstrates that people make surprisingly consistent associations between auditory attributes and a number of the commonly-agreed basic tastes. However, the sonic representation of (association with) saltiness has remained rather elusive. In the present study, a crowd-sourced online study ($\mathit{n}=1819$ participants) was conducted to determine the acoustical/musical attributes that best match saltiness, as well as participants’ confidence levels in their choices. Based on previous literature on crossmodal correspondences involving saltiness, thirteen attributes were selected to cover a variety of temporal, tactile, and emotional associations. The results revealed that saltiness was associated most strongly with a long decay time, high auditory roughness, and a regular rhythm. In terms of emotional associations, saltiness was matched with negative valence, high arousal, and minor mode. Moreover, significantly higher average confidence ratings were observed for those saltiness-matching choices for which there was majority agreement, suggesting that individuals were more confident about their own judgments when it matched with the group response, therefore providing support for the so-called ‘consensuality principle’. Taken together, these results help to uncover the complex interplay of mechanisms behind seemingly surprising crossmodal correspondences between sound attributes and taste.

越来越多的证据表明，人们在听觉属性和一些普遍认可的基本口味之间建立了惊人一致的关联。然而，咸味（与之相关）的声音表现仍然相当难以捉摸。在本研究中，一项众包在线研究（$\mathit{n}=1819$参与者）被用来确定最匹配咸味的声学/音乐属性，以及参与者对他们选择的信心水平。根据以前关于涉及咸味的跨模式对应的文献，选择了十三个属性来涵盖各种时间、触觉和情感关联。结果表明，咸味与长衰减时间、高听觉粗糙度和规律的节奏相关性最强。在情绪联想方面，咸味与负效价、高觉醒和次要模式相匹配。此外，对于大多数人同意的咸味匹配选择，观察到显着更高的平均置信度，这表明当个人的判断与群体反应相匹配时，他们对自己的判断更有信心，因此为所谓的“共识原则”提供支持。总而言之，这些结果有助于揭示声音属性和味道之间看似令人惊讶的交叉模式对应背后机制的复杂相互作用。