This week, that would be whether the voice in a random sound bite is saying the name “Yanny” or “Laurel.”
It’s actually “Laurel.”
The U.S., however, is a country where most voters don’t believe people can agree on basic facts. And when we asked 1,000 Americans to listen to the audio as part of a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, the responses showed little signs of consensus: 35 percent said “Yanny,” 31 percent said “Laurel,” and 14 percent didn’t hear either. The rest weren’t sure.
The poll seemingly supports the theory that age may play a role in the differing perceptions, with younger people more attuned to the higher-frequency sounds ― and more likely to fall into the “Yanny” camp. Americans under age 30 were Team Yanny by an 18-point margin, compared to just an 8-point margin for those aged 30-44. Americans aged 45-64 and those 65 or older were Team Laurel by a 2-point margin and a 5-point margin, respectively.
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