Unless you were living under a rock with no wi-fi, you probably participated in the great “Yanny v Laurel” debate. Listen and let us know which word you hear.
My friend and I both listened to the recording and were shocked to find that we both heard something COMPLETELY different. How could I hear “Laurel” while she heard “Yanny?!” We both thought the other was joking, because those words really don’t seem alike at all.
This got me thinking about how we are fully committed to believing that our perception is reality. We were both so convinced we were right that we couldn’t even budge on thinking anything except the other must be crazy. What we believe is real becomes our truth. When two people experience and event and each comes up with a different interpretation of what happened, conflict can easily arise.
How often have we had discussions with someone else, and when we recount the conversation, our recollections are different? My husband wants to start recording conversations, so we can play them back and see what was actually said. I tell him that’s fine with me, since I know I’m right! (ha ha)
Even our memories can be skewed. My daughter wrote a personal narrative passage in 5th or 6th grade about how happy she was about her father teaching her to ride a bike. When I read it, my heart sunk! One of my proudest parenting moments was teaching her to ride without training wheels, and she attributed it to her dad. When I questioned her about her memories, she said she had proof in her scrapbook. We pulled it out, and she did have a picture of her dad helping her when she got her first bicycle with training wheels for her third birthday. She didn’t actually learn to ride for another couple of years. She remembered the experiences of trying without training wheels up and down our street until she succeeded, but the picture of her on her bicycle with her dad cemented her “reality” that it was he who taught her, not me. She questioned why we didn’t have a picture of me teaching her, and as the resident photographer of our household, I told her I couldn’t hold the bike, let go, run beside her, and take a decent picture.
How many songs get misquoted? My brain is full of song lyrics, but I know I have misheard many lines in music. We hear different things, and our brains convince us that we are hearing correctly. My niece used to sing the Justin Timberlake song “Suit and Tie” as “As long as I’ve got my soup and tie (suit and tie = correct lyric), I’m gonna leave it all on the floor tonight…Let me show you my fruit bag (a few things = correct lyric). Jimmy Fallon even did a #misheardlyrics tag on Twitter. Here are some of the funniest:
Our mind plays tricks on us all of the time. Think of optical illusions. We can interpret things differently. Our eyes can indeed play tricks on us. Here are 20 optical illusions, and it includes the black and blue dress vs the white and gold dress:
Our memories can be faulty. When police interview witnesses to a crime, the information they get is often conflicting from those who actually saw the perpetrator and the scene. The appearance of the suspected criminal is described differently; a car color, make, model, or license plate involved in a crime is regularly reported contrary to other witnesses’ accounts.
The takeaway is this: What we know in our heart to be an absolute truth, may not be accurate. We can make mistakes in our interpretation of a situation. Our family, friends, and coworkers can see, hear, and recall differently from us. Instead of grasping tightly to being right, can we shift our attitude towards one of more understanding? What we feel is based on our interpretations of an event. Our interpretations are based on our previous experiences and effectiveness of our vision, hearing, and memory of a situation. We aren’t always right (I hope my husband doesn’t read this!), and we need to try to use communication to find common ground. I am working on letting go of my need to be right and accept that my reality isn’t the same as everyone else’s. Thank you Yanny and Laurel for opening my eyes and ears to understanding that perception isn’t always reality!
If you need to extend an olive branch or give a peace offering for someone you with whom you had a different perspective, jewelry is always a nice option! Check out these from Puravida and Soufeel. As an affiliate, if you purchase something through our links, we make a little money. Thanks for helping us keep the articles coming!
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