--- title: Done With Yanny Vs. Laurel? Try the McGurk Effect description: The McGurk Effect, named for Harry McGurk, is another example of auditory illusion. Here's how the McGurk Effect works and why it happens. canonical: https://time.com/5281039/mcgurk-effect-explained/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-17T18:26:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:18:22.164Z article:section: Science og:title: Over Yanny Vs. Laurel? Here's Another Way to Trick Your Ears og:description: It's all about perception og:url: https://time.com/5281039/mcgurk-effect-explained/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt545acb9e7efedd5f/698930a1656a3ffc11bd471f/ear-mcgurk-effect.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5616 og:image:height: 3159 og:image:alt: Ear of a dark-skinned young man og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Over Yanny Vs. Laurel? Here's Another Way to Trick Your Ears twitter:description: It's all about perception twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt545acb9e7efedd5f/698930a1656a3ffc11bd471f/ear-mcgurk-effect.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Over The 'Yanny' Vs. 'Laurel' Debate? Here's Another Way to Trick Your Ears > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. May 17, 2018 6:26 PM UTC  close up shot of the ear of a dark-skinned young man close up shot of the ear of a dark-skinned young man VladimirFLoyd—Getty Images/iStockphoto  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. May 17, 2018 6:26 PM UTC The great [Yanny vs. Laurel debate](http://time.com/5278817/yanny-or-laurel-audio-clip-debate/) may have [been settled](http://time.com/5279727/yanny-laurel-original-clip/) (it’s actually “Laurel,” [no matter what you heard](http://time.com/5279069/yanny-laurel-explanation/)), but there are plenty of other ways to trick your ears — and learn a little science in the process. Perhaps the most famous is the McGurk effect, a phenomenon named for Harry McGurk, half of the research duo who [first wrote about the auditory illusion](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1012311) back in the 1970s. McGurk and his colleague John MacDonald recorded a voice articulating one consonant, then matched it with a video that showed a person articulating another consonant. Even though the audio file never changed, the researchers observed that individuals thought they were hearing two different things, depending on whether they listened to the clip alone or heard it while also watching the video. The experiment has been tweaked and repeated plenty of times since the 1970s; you can watch one example in [this BBC video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-lN8vWm3m0&t=13s). So what’s going on here? Dr. Kevin Franck, director of audiology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, says it all goes back to the brain’s inherent desire to assign meaning to confusing stimuli, like an ambiguous sound. “Your brain’s just trying to make sense of what’s coming at it,” he says. “It hates it when things don’t make sense.” In terms of the McGurk effect, the brain relies on the eyes to settle the confusion coming at the ears — particularly when they’re seeing something as clear as a pair of lips distinctly mouthing a certain sound or word. “I have one ambiguous signal, which is the actual thing you hear, but then I say, ‘Oh, I’ve got another input, which is very clear. I trust my eyes now, because my ears aren’t sure,'” Franck explains. “It’s just taking all of these different inputs and making sense out of the mess.” Once you know what’s going on, Franck says, you’ll likely be able to tell that you’re hearing the same thing in both instances — but left to its own devices, the brain will try to eliminate confusion every time. “The brain just likes things to be consistent. It wants things to be neat and tidy,” Franck says. “And when it’s not, it resolves it by overriding one for the other, like this McGurk effect.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5281039/mcgurk-effect-explained/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5281039/mcgurk-effect-explained/"},"headline":"Over The 'Yanny' Vs. 'Laurel' Debate? 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