An AMAZING optical illusion has been discovered that changes what you hear.
People can’t understand a BBC clip shared on TikTok, which shows a man apparently saying “bar”.
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Scientist reveals how the trick worksCredit: TikTok/BBC
Then her lip movements change and she appears to be speaking ‘away’.
But not everything is what it seems.
In reality, the sound is exactly the same, but lip movements affect what we think we hear.
In fact, the sound says ‘bar’ all the time, it never says ‘far’.
This is due to a phenomenon known as the McGurk effect.
Basically, it affects the way we hear a word based on how we see it pronounced.
This is because seeing the way someone speaks actually changes the way we hear sound.
“In the illusion, what we see overrides what we hear, so the mouth movements we see while looking at a face can influence what we think we hear,” explained Professor Lawrence Rosenblum of the University of California Riverside.
“If we close our eyes, we actually hear the sound as it is.
“If we open our eyes, we actually see how mouth movements can affect what we hear.”
The funny thing is that even knowing that the effect exists, you cannot avoid it.
Commenting on TikTok, one user said: “Who are you kidding because it apparently makes a different sound? Look at the mouth.”
Another added: “You’re right. I tried this without looking at the screen and all I heard was bang bang bang.”
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Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education