Now there is a visual to go along with the audio debate over ‘yanny’ versus ‘laurel’ that has taken over the internet.
Artist Ariadne Remoundakis created script lettering that appears to spell out both words, depending on how you look at it.
The meme was inspired by an audio clip that had listeners roughly split over whether a voice was saying the word ‘yanny’ or the word ‘laurel.’
The answer, by the way, is technically ‘laurel,’ according to Buzzfeed News, which tracked the origin of the clip to a pronouncing guide on vocabulary.com after contacting the Reddit user who posted it in the first place.
But in case you were wondering why some people hear ‘yanny,’ there’s a scientific explanation for that.
One possible explanation for hearing the same audio clip differently could be based on the age of your ears.
It turns out speaking both ‘yanny’ and ‘laurel’ creates similar patterns of sound waves that are sent though the air, which makes the two seemingly very different words actually more alike than they look when written out as text.
With both words contain such similar sound waves, anything that results in favoring higher or lower frequencies could effect what you hear.
That’s because the higher frequency in the audio clip will sound more like ‘yanny’ and the lower frequency sound waves will sound more like ‘laurel.’
It turns out younger ears with better hearing are more easily able to pick up the higher pitch associated with hearing ‘yanny,’ making older ears with less sensitive hearing more likely to hear the lower pitch word, ‘laurel.’
This could be impacted by the quality of device you’re listening on, and the settings of the speakers you’re playing the audio through.
Divide: A new auditory illusion has listeners either hearing a voice say the word ‘yanny’ or ‘laurel’ in a new audio recording and it is dividing the internet
Audio illusion: In the audio clip you can hear a male operator saying one word but people are split in half over it because they’re actually hearing two completely different words
Although, ASAP Science pointed out that had we all not been ‘primed’ with the options of ‘yanny’ or ‘laurel,’ we might have head something else entirely.
But, since those suggestions were already at the forefront of our minds, the concept of ‘priming’ had us all predisposed to hear one or the other.
Whichever word you hear, the debate dominated offices and living rooms this week, with celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres and Stephen Fry weighing in.
Fry tweeted: ‘I’m puzzled that anyone can hear #Yanny – I hear #Laurel very clearly… I can’t even begin to hear #Yanny.’
Good idea: One user suggested playing around with the bass frequencies until you hear a different word than you originally heard
How does it sound? This user was so shocked that someone heard ‘laurel’ instead of ‘yanny’ and asked what ‘laurel’ sounded like
Deep voice: The people that heard the word ‘laurel’ heard it in a deeper pitch of voice
One user shared a meme saying she hears laurel and only laurel and that Satan loves confusion
Positive: This woman was completely sure that she heard yanny and can’t understand how anyone could hear otherwise
Laurel: In reply to the woman, this user said she’s positive she hears laurel
Daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres wrote on Twitter: ‘Literally everything at my show just stopped to see if people hear Laurel or Yanny. I hear Laurel.’
This whole thing brings to mind the argument that arose in 2014 when people couldn’t agree over whether a picture of a dress posted on Twitter was beige and white or blue and black.
Especially now that we have a visual to go along with it.
Black magic: While most people heard one or the other, this user heard both words
Repeat: This user listened to the recording a dozen times and still hears the same word
The dress: This new illusion is similar to the dress that took took the internet by storm three years ago over whether or not the dress was white and gold or blue and black (pictured)
Oh no: This person was not happy about a new viral illusion popping up on the internet