It’s the dress all over again.
What kind of sorcery is this?
A two-second vine of a man saying one word is about to melt the internet, and our brains.
Watch this video on loop (with the sound on) and look at the man’s mouth. What’s he saying? ‘Far’?
Now try this: Cover the right side of the screen so you can only see the left mouth.
Now what is he saying? ‘Bar’.
Here is the science part:
Our minds are reading his lips when he vocalises the sound. On the right, he makes the ‘fricative’ F shape with his teeth and lips, while on the left, he makes the ‘bilabial’ B shape with his lips. Our brain uses the sound of the word and the shape of his lips to conclude whether he is saying ‘bar’ or ‘far’.
Remember when a dress sent the world into meltdown?
If you close your eyes, he is really making a sound closer to ‘var’ with a short V sound. But because that’s not an English word, your brain makes a choice at what English word he is trying to say, based on the information received.
Clever brain. Sorry for trying to melt you with confusing games.
As you were.
Top Comments
Here's something even more freaky... after watching the video uncovered for a bit, cover the left side of the screen (the one saying bar) and look at the right for a few seconds. You will obviously hear the word "far" look back to the left side of the screen with it still covered... What do you hear? I heard "far" even though it was covered.
I say 'var'. V is a fricative sounds like F but the reason it doesn't like far is because it's voice (F being not voiced, V Being voiced). Linguistics, people.