Do you hear Yanny or Laurel? Here's an explanation as Nigerians debate on Twitter

Nigerians on Twitter have been debating over a short audio clip of a computer-generated voice with added background sounds.

In a case similar to the gold/blue dress controversy of 2015, this audio clip is also causing similar division as different people can hear different things.

The audio clip first appeared on Reddit but then it reappeared on CBS This Morning with Gayle King. The audio clip is saying one word, but which word is being said has become the subject of a fierce debate on social media.

Some people can only hear “Yanny”, while others can hear only “Laurel”. So, listen to the audio below and let us know, what do you hear?

Please be sincere with me, I don’t want to believe this. I know what I heard. What can you hear? Yanny or Laurel? pic.twitter.com/EwZTUWMMOk

— JJ. Omojuwa (@Omojuwa) April 6, 2020

Regardless of what you hear, people on Twitter are having a fierce debate over whether the voice is saying “Yanny” or “Laurel”. See some of their comments below:

Someone is trolling the world, I think there are two videos. One with Yanny and one edited with Laurel. Cos it was Laurel I heard yesterday now I'm hearing something else https://t.co/06tyZDwHAz

— Bane (@jodambusta) April 7, 2020

But its Laurel. How do yall hear Yanny ??? https://t.co/XbmVsrW1PB

— sheabutterbaby (@DineoTsaBadimo) April 7, 2020

https://twitter.com/adekunleGOLD/status/1247294509270040582?s=20

This Laurel and Yanny is proof that human beings can hear the same thing but interpret differently. I heard Yanny sha, if you heard laurel just spend your next 1k on cotton buds so that you can clean your ear ?

— DREYLO (@RealDreylo) April 6, 2020

https://twitter.com/ayabachi/status/1247233739039612939?s=20

https://twitter.com/ObongRoviel/status/1247256238745927682?s=20

You people that are hearing Yanny better goan pour anointing oil inside your ears. Played this shii about a 100 times and all I hear is Laurel https://t.co/dpDSEdiz0x

— ENIYANSORO?? (@iam_tallblaqboi) April 6, 2020

No matter what you’re hearing though, there is an explanation for why this audio clip is causing so much confusion.

“They can be seen in two ways, and often the mind flips back and forth between the two interpretations. This happens because the brain can’t decide on a definitive interpretation,” Professor David Alais of University of Sydney’s School of Psychology told The Guardian.

“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.

“All of this goes to highlight just how much the brain is an active interpreter of sensory input, and thus that the external world is less objective than we like to believe.”

A simpler explanation was offered by a Twitter user who said:

“The secret is frequency.The acoustic information that makes us hear YANNY is higher frequency than that makes us hear LAUREL. It’s a phenomenon you can copy on a computer, if you remove all the low frequencies, you hear YANNY, If you remove the high frequencies, you hear LAUREL.

“So if you’re hearing LAUREL, you’re likely picking up on the lower frequency. If you hear YANNY, you’re picking up on the higher frequency. It really comes down to how our brains pick up on and interpret these frequencies at a particular moment.”

So if you're hearing LAUREL, you're likely picking up on the lower frequency. If you hear YANNY, you're picking up on the higher frequency. It really comes down to how our brains pick up on and interpret these frequencies at a particular moment.

— S????? ? B????l? (@psalmloko) April 6, 2020

Listen to the audio clips below:

if you can't hear LAUREL listen to this……#yannyvslaurel pic.twitter.com/6nHJzT2K5i

— Dami (@Damiforgreatnx) April 7, 2020

https://twitter.com/plugmanskillz/status/1247279305903792128

We’d like to hear from you. What do you hear? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.