From a scientific perspective, this mechanism is well known and well-documented: it's a classic example of auditory apophenia or pareidolia, the mind's tendency to search for familiar patterns in random stimuli. If we predispose someone to hear a voice in the background noise, there's a good chance they'll hear words—the brain simply tries to organize the chaos into something meaningful.
Ghost hunters have long exploited this property: they ask a question in a dark room, then play a recording of the noise and suggest what is heard (e.g., "we heard the word help "). They often even suggest to viewers what the EVP is supposedly saying via on-screen captions—and then most people actually hear it, because of the power of suggestion.
Benjamin Radford, a paranormal researcher and skeptic, notes that most of these "voices" are simply ambient noises, radio static, or echoes of the researchers' own words , which, under the right conditions (silence, fear, anticipation), are interpreted as something supernatural. In other words, we hear what we want (or fear) to hear .
In online recordings, the mechanism is used even more consciously. When editing an EVP video, the creator selects fragments that suit the narrative, slows them down, filters them, and often adds captions like: "(hear: I'm okay )". The average viewer, seeing the caption "I'm okay," will automatically try to match it to the vague sound and think, "Oh yes, he actually sounds like he's saying that." However, if the same sound were captioned "Mike O. Kay," they would likely hear it there too – because it's a matter of suggestion.
Moreover, deliberate sound manipulation cannot be ruled out . Some ghost hunters use so-called spirit box applications or sound banks, which can generate random words from a synthesizer—so it's not actually a ghost, but a program that "throws" words, from which sensational pieces are selected. More dishonest creators may even overdub their own lines in whispers and pretend it's EVP. The audience has no way of knowing what was actually on the raw recording and what has been added or edited. They trust (or not) only the creator.
The lack of verifiability raises an ethical issue: isn't presenting such content as quasi-authentic (because it's a recording, after all) misleading ? In a sense, yes – the viewer is given the illusion of experiencing a fact (an audio/video recording), when in reality, they're presented with the creator's interpretation and creation . While in feature films or literature, we immediately know that what we're watching is fiction, on YouTube, such EVPs are often presented on the borderline – the creator supposedly says, "I don't know if it's true, it's just what I heard," yet the entire presentation suggests authenticity .
The lack of a clear indication that this is purely entertainment content leads some viewers to mistake it for reality . Younger viewers and those with a high degree of gullibility, who strongly believe in paranormal phenomena, are particularly susceptible. Therefore, it could be said that those who publish these recordings are responsible for disinformation , as they do not present verified facts, but merely sensational speculation.
This is particularly dangerous when the opinions and emotions of living people are influenced through alleged messages .
We have already given the example of accusing Ariana Grande of Mac Miller's death – this is a classic manipulation, where a certain narrative, potentially harmful and hurtful, is promoted under the guise of "ghost words".
Another example is suggesting in EVP that someone's death was, for example, murder, not an accident (there have been "messages" saying, for example, "They killed me," when, according to official findings, the death was a suicide). This can fuel conspiracy theories and undermine the investigation's findings—in short, confuse people. All based on chaotic noise, which someone interprets according to their own agenda .
Audience manipulation is therefore a real accusation: the creator of the video positions themselves as possessing secret knowledge that no one can verify, and asks the viewer to trust them. If the viewer trusts them, the creator gains enormous credit and influence – they can continue selling them any "revelations from the afterlife."
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