Is the dress white and gold or is it blue and black? This question has been plaguing social media for the past day and an answer has been found. The dress is in fact blue. But why do so many of us (me included) see white and gold?
We all want to be able to trust our eyes and believe what we see, but in this case what we know we see is just plain wrong.
“Light enters the eye through the lens … The light hits the retina in the back of the eye where pigments fire up neural connections to the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes those signals into an image,” reported wired.com in an article.
The next step is where the confusion is taking place.
According to cbs.com, “Human eyes and brains have evolved to see color in a sunlit world, as a result, we perceive only the reflected colors. Blue light has the shortest wavelength making it harder to see than other colors.”
So what do the eyes of Taylor Swift and Mindy Kaling, who correctly interpret the dress in its true blue form, have that mine don’t?
“People either discount the blue side, in which case they end up seeing white and gold, or discount the gold side, in which case they end up with blue and black,” Bevil Conway, a neuroscientist who studies color and vision at Wellesley College, told wired.com.
Our eyes make this decision without us even realizing it, separating the Taylors and Mindys from the rest of us who erroneously and stubbornly stand by our white and gold vision.
Sources:
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/02/27/dress-color-see-white-gold-b...
All user-generated information on this site is the opinion of its author only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions. Members and guests are responsible for their own posts and the potential consequences of those posts detailed in our Terms of Service.
Add a Comment2 Comments
I think it is so crazy that something like this can completely mind boggle the entire nation and get everyone buzzed about the color of a dress! I see white and gold, and what really gets to me is why do we see everything else that is blue and black as blue and black but the blue and black dress as white and gold? It would make sense if half the population always saw blue and black as white and gold (for everything) and the other half saw blue and black always, but what was it about this particular image that tricked so many brains?
March 2, 2015 - 10:47amThis Comment
So interesting how our eyes process colors differently! I'm right there with you..I definitely saw white and gold.
February 27, 2015 - 12:01pmThis Comment