“Yanny” or “Laurel”: the audio clip that’s tearing the internet apart

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VOX:

On Tuesday, Cloe Feldman, a social media influencer and vlogger, posted a seemingly obvious question on her Instagram story, which she then cross-posted to Twitter: “What do you hear? Yanny or Laurel,” accompanied by a recording of a computerized voice that is clearly saying “Laurel.”

Some maniacs, some of whom I work with, swear they hear “Yanny” even though the recording, in the plainest English, says the word “Laurel.” Some even claim to be able to hear both words at once.

These kinds of things fascinate me. For the record, I hear “Laurel”. Our 12-year-old son hears “Yanny”. But my Australian wife hears “yearly”. Weirdo.

Update from Dave Mark:

This tweet video does a great job of explaining the effect. I found the whole thing super interesting!