Some People Are Hearing the Word 'Yanny' and Others 'Laurel' in This Audio Clip. It's Stoking a Fierce Debate
There’s a new debate storming the internet that’s reminiscent of the furor over that white and gold dress back in 2015 (or was it blue and back?)
People are torn over an audio clip of a computer-generated voice, with some listeners saying they hear the word ‘Laurel’ in a deep male voice, and others saying they hear ‘Yanny’ in a higher-pitch.
The recording went viral after it first surfaced on Reddit earlier this week. It was later posted on Twitter, where it has been liked more than 50,000 times and stoked a fierce debate.
What do you hear?! Yanny or Laurel pic.twitter.com/jvHhCbMc8I
— Cloe Feldman (@CloeCouture) May 15, 2018
So how can people hear two different words from the same recording?
One theory presented in the Guardian is that the illusion is an example of “perceptually ambiguous stimulus.” Professor David Alais from The University of Sydney’s school of psychology said this happens when the brain can’t decide on exactly what it is seeing (or hearing). “They can be seen in two ways, and often the mind flips back and forth between the two interpretations,” he said. “If there is little ambiguity, the brain locks on to a single perceptual interpretation. Here, the Yanny/Laurel sound is meant to be ambiguous because each sound has a similar timing and energy content — so in principle it’s confusable.”
It is the same phenomenon that occurs when people observe Rubin’s Vase, an image that can be seen as either a vase or two faces in profile.
Others suggest that because the audio is noisy, it could disrupt how people hear the word and so your brain fills in with what it thinks it should be hearing. The frequency of the audio clip and visual cues may also play a part, according to the Verge.
The debate rages on social media.
Literally everything at my show just stopped to see if people hear Laurel or Yanny. I hear Laurel. https://t.co/efWRw1Gj0L
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) May 15, 2018
Yanny/Laurel MYSTERY SOLVED! I messed with the audio file and discovered that basically, the lower frequencies say “Laurel,” and the higher frequencies say “Yanny.” Here’s some audio I messed with that lets you hear both sides. #yannyvslaurel #yannyorlaurel #yanny #laurel pic.twitter.com/eyybCNLnQi
— jacob livesay (@JFLivesay) May 16, 2018
If you wanted to know whether I hear Yanny or Laurel here's your answer. ?????? pic.twitter.com/xnrIby2kmd
— Kyle MacLachlan (@Kyle_MacLachlan) May 15, 2018
THERE IS NO YANNY, ONLY LAUREL pic.twitter.com/K3UPGWC3zQ
— amber ruffin (@ambermruffin) May 16, 2018
???? I ???? AM ???? LOSING ???? MY ???? MIND ON THIS #YANNY LAUREL THING
ITS YANNY NO QUESTION pic.twitter.com/66gU3tgGhN— MATT and KIM (@mattandkim) May 16, 2018