Forget about Laurel and Hardy. In 2018, everybody just wants to talk about Laurel and Yanny.
On Monday, social media influencer Cloe Feldman asked a simple question to her followers: "What do you hear?! Yanny or Laurel?"
What do you hear?! Yanny or Laurel pic.twitter.com/jvHhCbMc8I
— Cloe Feldman (@CloeCouture) May 15, 2018
We know what you're thinking: Those two words aren't anything alike! How could anyone get the two confused? Yet the response divided the internet, with each side of the argument fervently saying they hear one word and not the other.
our entire newsroom right now divided by this #Yanny vs #Laurel debate pic.twitter.com/mt3w8C9yi5
— Alex Stockwell (@alexrstockwell) May 15, 2018
The thing definitely says Laurel, there's no way anyone could hear that as Yanny, anyone who says they do is lying for shock value, the end, gfy
— Ted Berg (@OGTedBerg) May 15, 2018
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
Personally, I heard "yanny" and thought people in the "laurel" camp were crazy. That is until I sat down to write this post, and now all I can hear is "laurel," because reality is an illusion and all of existence is breaking down in front of me.
On Google, searches for "laurel" outpaced "yanny," but both words saw a significant increase in search traffic.
It's the audio version of that blasted black-and-blue (not white-and-gold) dress.
Internet sleuths quickly got to work trying to explain the phenomenon, with several people adjusting the pitch and bass levels of the audio file in order to change what they could hear.
you can hear both when you adjust the bass levels: pic.twitter.com/22boppUJS1
— Earth Vessel Quotes (@earthvessquotes) May 15, 2018
A few media outlets reached out to scientists and audio experts for more. University of Chicago psychologist Howard Nusbaum told Gizmodo, "If I cut your ears off and put someone else's on your head, sounds would sound different," explaining that the very shapes of our ears affect the way we hear things.
Audio engineer Matt Mikkelsen told the site that there are some other very important elements at play in whether you hear "yanny" or "laurel": Your audio equipment and your brain. The former could very easily affect what frequency and pitch you hear, meaning that you might hear a different word simply by swapping out your headphones. As for our brains, they "play a big part in shaping sound and how we hear it," so what you expect to hear may actually influence what you do hear.
No matter the scientific explanation, though, it appears that the world will henceforth be divided between "yanny" people and "laurel" people. May God have mercy on us all.
