“Laurel” or “Yanny”? The Audio Clip That’s Puzzling Us All

It’s been three years since the dress that stumped the internet. 

When the mother of a bride sent her daughter this photo, causing a disagreement over its color that would spread so widely, its hashtag would amass over 10 million mentions within the post's first week.

This debate garnered viral attention after a friend of the bride’s posted the image on Tumblr and no one on the internet could agree on what they saw. 

Earlier today, a new kind of controversy sparked across Twitter when people were asked to pick which of these words they hear in this clip:

It’s basically the audio equivalent of the dress debacle all over again.

Most of us can only hear one of the words (names?)

#TeamLaurel all the way.

Others, after searching long and hard, are still torn between the options.

Admittedly, some are more dedicated to this debate than others:

And some people (especially Chrissy Teigen) are just over it

But what is behind people hearing different names? As it turns out...

Apparently, you can hear “yanny” at a low volume with little to no bass and “laurel” when the volume and bass are high. There's also some variance in what you'll hear based on what device you're listening on. Some people on tablets and lower quality headphones are more likely to hear "yanny" over its counterpart due to the low bass on those devices causing the overall pitch of the recording to be higher.

The recording is also mediocre quality, making it much easier for there to be ambiguity on what you may or may not hear, especially if you've been told to listen for one or the other. 

(Essentially, your brain is biased.)

But it's not stopping the internet from losing its mind.

Oh, internet, where will we go from here.

(Oh it's 100% Laurel btw)