This silent gif has gone viral because people think it makes a noise
Watch this gif, created by @IamHappyToast, and see if you think it makes a noise.
https://twitter.com/lisadebruine/status/937105553968566272
It’s totally silent, by the way. But loads of people think they can hear a thudding noise when the skipping pylon hits the ground.
What do you experience when you watch this gif?
— Lisa DeBruine 🏳️🌈 (@lisadebruine) December 3, 2017
Here’s an explanation (or two).
My favourite explanation so far is that this triggers the acoustic reflex, which is usually triggered by speech or loud noises. https://t.co/OjHX84xs4C
— Lisa DeBruine 🏳️🌈 (@lisadebruine) December 3, 2017
When the visuals presented to you impose a cognitive load greater than what your brain can handle, your brain tends to stop processing it objectively and replaces it with stereotypes/previous experience. This image forces your brain to associate it with the stereotype image 1/2
— Ministry of Public Enlightenment (@Atimaharathi) December 3, 2017
of skipping rope. The mind associates the image with the steel lattice towers "skipping rope" with the electrical lines being "the rope". This also makes your mind link the image with other effects associated with the stereotype. Hence, you can "hear" the "jumps". 2/2
— Ministry of Public Enlightenment (@Atimaharathi) December 3, 2017
This seems unlikely, since I don’t think most people “hear” other gifs with stereotypically associated sounds. pic.twitter.com/Exv75HmzrY
— Lisa DeBruine 🏳️🌈 (@lisadebruine) December 3, 2017
I agree this seems unlikely, but I must say, looking at that starts a siren going in my head. I suspect I might be conditioned by the previous tweet, but this is absolutely fascinating
— Lauren McFarlane (@LA_McFarlane) December 3, 2017
But did asking the question before we watched the gif affect what we heard in our head?
I’m having difficulty knowing whether I would have heard anything if I had not read the suggestion in your tweet that I should hear something.
— Ben Ramsey (@ramsey) December 3, 2017
Me too, but now I can't unhear it.
— Trash Gordon (@lomotrashgordon) December 3, 2017
Us neither. You can read a whole lot more about it here, where a professor called Trevor Cox had this to say.
“There are well known cases of sensory inputs crossing to other domains, e.g. people who associate colours with sounds, so it doesn’t surprise me that for some viewers a sound results.
“We also tend to think of our senses as being separate, but our brain collates responses from all senses to work out what is going on. So I would say it is likely to be some effect in the brain rather than a physical effect like the acoustic reflex.”
We’re going for a lie down. But before we do, don’t forget to follow @IamHappyToast on Twitter here.
Hi there, yeah, for some reason people like cropping my name off the bottom pic.twitter.com/ekcOWeQNbR
— HappyToast ★ (@IamHappyToast) December 4, 2017
