Leemann, AdrianAdrianLeemannJeszenszky, PéterPéterJeszenszky0000-0002-0873-1743Steiner, CarinaCarinaSteinerLanthemann, Corinne CandiceCorinne CandiceLanthemann2025-03-262025-03-262022-09-18https://boris-portal.unibe.ch/handle/20.500.12422/207814In May 2018, Yanny v. Laurel went viral: when listening to the same audio clip, some people claimed to hear only Yanny, others insisted it must be Laurel, and some had a mixed percept. Phoneticians have identified the acoustic features which caused this perceptual ambiguity, but we still know little about the factors affecting individuals’ perception of the illusion. We conducted a controlled study with 974 Swiss German listeners, balanced for age, gender, and regional origin. Overall, nearly two thirds heard Yanny, one quarter Laurel, and about 12% had a mixed percept. We found age, gender, and electronic device to play a significant role: younger, female, and laptop-using participants demonstrated higher proportions of Yanny responses. These findings contribute to the growing body of research on polyperceivable words.enconference_item10.21437/Interspeech.2022-10048