Yanny or Laurel? Internet divided over infuriating audio (POLL)
Yanny or Laurel? That's the question sparked by an infuriating piece of audio that has split people into two camps.
In a 2018 version of ‘The Dress’ debate, people are arguing over whether a computer-generated voice is saying ‘Laurel’ or ‘Yanny’. The short recording first surfaced on Reddit this week and has subsequently gone viral on Twitter, provoking an intense debate.
What do you hear?! Yanny or Laurel pic.twitter.com/jvHhCbMc8I
— Cloe Feldman (@CloeCouture) May 15, 2018
Just like ‘The Dress’ fiasco, people are utterly convinced of their point of view and can’t understand why anyone could possible disagree.
I hear Laurel!!! On my mothers life x
— James Argent (@RealJamesArgent) May 16, 2018
It’s Yanny you weirdos
— Rylan Clark-Neal (@Rylan) May 16, 2018
Look, the dress was blue and black, the sound is Laurel, it's a beautiful day, I'm mentally stable and physically fit and that is the reality I choose to believe in.
— Astrid (@AstridClark) May 16, 2018
Yanny!!! This is really weird. How is anyone hearing Laurel? Is this a trick thing like the blue and gold dress? https://t.co/jr3k0oJIiI
— Ryan Adams (@TheRyanAdams) May 16, 2018
Laurel !!! That’s all ! pic.twitter.com/0T5qUktSCp
— Jaymi Hensley (@JaymiUJWorld) May 16, 2018
👏 I 👏 AM 👏 LOSING 👏 MY 👏 MIND ON THIS #YANNY LAUREL THINGITS YANNY NO QUESTION pic.twitter.com/66gU3tgGhN
— MATT and KIM (@mattandkim) May 16, 2018
Many have turned to science in their quest for an explanation. Dylan Bennett was one of many who said it was all down to frequency and what people’s ears can pick up. Lower frequencies make it more likely that you’ll hear “Laurel” while at higher ones you’re more likely to hear “Yanny”.
Okay, you're not crazy. If you can hear high freqs, you probably hear "yanny", but you *might* hear "laurel". If you can't hear high freqs, you probably hear laurel. Here's what it sounds like without high/low freqs. RT so we can avoid the whole dress situation. #yanny#laurel 🙄 pic.twitter.com/RN71WGyHwe
— Dylan Bennett (@MBoffin) May 16, 2018
Ok, so if you pitch-shift it you can hear different things:down 30%: https://t.co/F5WCUZQJlqdown 20%: https://t.co/CLhY5tvnC1up 20%: https://t.co/zAc7HomuCSup 30% https://t.co/JdNUILOvFWup 40% https://t.co/8VTkjXo3L1https://t.co/suSw6AmLtn
— Steve Pomeroy (@xxv) 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#laurelpic.twitter.com/eyybCNLnQi
— jacob livesay (@JFLivesay) May 16, 2018
Another theory, put forward by Professor David Alais from The University of Sydney’s school of psychology, claimed that the auditory illusion is an example of “perceptually ambiguous stimulus,” in which essentially the brain can’t decide on exactly what it is seeing - or in this case hearing.
And so the debate rages on.
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