--- title: "Scientists Discover That You Can Hear Silence" description: "In a study, scientists at Johns Hopkins University claim to have determined that, yes, you can actually hear the sound of silence." date: "2023-07-11" modified: "2023-07-11" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-hear-silence" categories: - "Health & Medicine" - "Studies" tags: - "health" - "hearing" - "philosophy" - "Psychology" --- # Scientists Discover That You Can Hear Silence ![In a study, scientists at Johns Hopkins University claim to have determined that, yes, you can actually hear the sound of silence.]() *\Image: Getty Images\* Do we have a bat signal for Paul Simon? In a new [paper](), a team of philosophers and psychologists at Johns Hopkins University claims to have finally settled an ancient debate: whether you can actually *hear* the [sound of silence](). In a mind-bending conclusion, they found that you absolutely can. "We typically think of our sense of hearing as being concerned with sounds. But silence, whatever it is, is not a sound — it's the absence of sound," [said]() the study's lead author, Johns Hopkins graduate student in philosophy and psychology Rui Zhe Goh. "Surprisingly, what our work suggests is that *nothing* is also something you can hear." Per the study, published Monday in the [journal *PNAS*](), researchers utilized established auditory trickery, such as the [one-is-more illusion](), to conduct the experiment. But in the middle of these tests, the researchers added a twist: they periodically subbed noise for pure nothingness, then measured whether particpants' brains would react the same way they would to conventional — noisy, that is — sound illusions. "Philosophers have long debated whether silence is something we can literally perceive, but there hasn’t been a scientific study aimed directly at this question," said study co-author Chaz Firestone, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences and the director of the Johns Hopkins Perception & Mind Laboratory. "Our approach was to ask whether our brains treat silences the way they treat sounds." "If you can get the same illusions with silences as you get with sounds," he added, "then that may be evidence that we literally hear silence after all." Ultimately, 1,000 participants were assessed across seven different tests. Fascinatingly, the researchers were able to determine that across *all* tests, participants' brains reacted the same way to silence as they did to noise — a result that seemingly suggests that, yes, we *hear* silence, even if we're really hearing nothing at all. "We show that silences can 'substitute' for sounds in event-based auditory illusions," reads the study. "Seven experiments introduce three 'silence illusions,' adapted from perceptual illusions previously thought to arise only with sounds." "In all cases," it continues, "silences elicited temporal distortions perfectly analogous to their sound-based counterparts, suggesting that auditory processing treats moments of silence the way it treats sounds. Silence is truly perceived, not merely inferred." "The kinds of illusions and effects that look like they are unique to the auditory processing of a sound, we also get them with silences," added study co-author Ian Phillips, a John Hopkins philosopher and psychologist, "suggesting we really do hear absences of sound too." If there's any caveat to the results, it's that the silences that the Johns Hopkins researchers prompted participants with were embedded into various soundscapes. Still, the results of the experiment are compelling, especially considering the weight and history of the argument itself. In any case, just know: if your words, like silent raindrops, ever echo in any wells of silence, that's just the sounds of silence. **More on psychology:** [*Scientists Officially Link Sports Cars to Small Penis Size*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()