Yanny or Laurel? People are hearing 2 different things in this viral clip

A short viral audio clip has generated fierce reactions around the globe. Some people can hear Yanny, while others swear they can hear Laurel. Here’s why.

Remember ‘The Dress’ debate which went viral in 2015? Some saw a black and blue colour combination while others saw white and gold in a photograph of a dress. Both sides stuck to their views until science stepped in and explained why different folks viewed the same dress differently.

Now, the internet has once again been vehemently divided, thanks to a viral audio clip. It was first posted on Reddit, after which it took a life of its own on Twitter.

So, are you team Yanny or team Laurel? Some even say they can hear both after a point of time.

Once again, it is up to science to explain the phenomenon. Why can people hear the same audio clip and hear two words which are nowhere close to being similar?

The Verge spoke to Lars Riecke, an assistant professor of audition and cognitive neuroscience at Maastricht University and the secret, it turns out, lies in the frequency: “The acoustic information that makes us hear Yanny is higher frequency than the acoustic information that makes us hear Laurel… Older adults tend to start losing their hearing at the higher frequency ranges,” Riecke said.

This explains why young people said they heard Yanny while those of a certain age proclaimed the clip voted for Laurel.

As with everything that goes viral – from the serious to the inane – people made jokes about it. Take a look at a few hilarious tweets about the great Yanny vs Laurel debate.

Even celebs weighed in.