There are so many colors in the world, but we all agree that blue is blue and pink is pink, but why and is that even accurate? Is my red the same hue and color as your red? Do we see our colors at the same intensity? I’m not talking about being colored blind, but that we just agree that orange is orange, but are our oranges the same? Everyone is different so how could we possibly be all looking at every color the same way, there is no way that’s happening so I truly believe my colors can be different from your colors.
In our retina’s, we have 6-7 million cones and about 120 million rods that help us reflect and receive light and color. We also have three color sensitive cones, green-sensitive, blue-sensitive, and red-sensitive that pick up all the colors on the spectrum. When we look at an object, light is being both absorbed and reflected off that object and we receive what is being reflected and we see that color in the light-sensitive retina back of our eye. We have three different color sensitive cones because they all respond differently to different color lights. 64% of the cones are receiving red light, 34% are receiving the green light, and about 2% are receiving the blue light. When we look at an object, the optic nerve sends a signal to visual cortex of our brain which then sends back to our brain and eyes whatever color the object is.
diagram of the eye
Humans have the red-sensitive cone that other mammals don’t have, which means we see and distinguish colors better than them, meaning our colors ARE different from other mammals colors, but that still doesn’t answer if an individual human’s colors are different from one another.
We all agree the sky is blue and the sun is yellow and the grass is green. Blue has shorter wavelengths than red, which makes them blue and red. The way we perceive the colors may be different from each other, but we all are receiving them as the same wavelengths. When anyone looks at the sky, we are all receiving shorter wavelengths no matter what so we all are seeing some type of blue. When we all look at a fire, we are all receiving longer wavelengths and sometime of red or yellow mix of colors.
There is an emotional connection we all have to colors and light. Shorter wavelengths make us feel calm and longer ones make us feel active. At night, there are more short-wave lengths around in the light, making us tired and that’s why we sleep at night. Around sunrise and sunset are when we are most active because the longer wavelengths make us feel active and energized and more alert. These are all universal responses that humans take to color and light. A study was done where they changed the ambient light as opposed to the intensity of the light and it proved why more blue light at night makes us more tired and why yellow light in the morning makes us active.
In 1998, another color sensitive cone was discovered in the eye called melanopsin, which processes how much blue and yellow light the eye is receiving. This information gets sent to the part of the brain that handles emotions. Humans have similar emotions to similar colors, but that doesn’t mean we are perceiving the light and colors in the same way. Even if someone looks at the something you call blue and sees red, that doesn’t change how they emotionally feel when they see their blue.
I think my colors can and might possibly be different from your colors. I don’t believe that our colors are extremely different, as in I don’t think that what I call purple, someone else is calling yellow, but I do believe that what I call orange, someone might call yellow because we are picking up different frequencies of wave lengths from the same object. Colors from individual to individual most likely are different, but not extremely, aside from color-blind people.
This topic absolutely messes with my mind, and I think about it all the time. When I look at clothes and try to figure out if they are black or navy blue, it is the most frustrating thing in the world. I ask friends and they all tell me a different answer the majority of the time. When the picture of the dress came out last year and some people saw blue and black, while some saw gold and white, this just made me angry because to me it was obviously blue and black. How do we know that we all see the same colors? I’m not sure there is any way to tell. This also made me think about things such as how does language work. How do we agree that a door is a door and so on. The things we have accomplished as humans amaze me.
I think about this all the time. I agree in the thinking that all people see colors a little differently, but I don’t think it’s as drastic as me seeing yellow and you seeing orange. Rather, I think everyone sees different shades of the same color- My yellow might be a little brighter than your yellow, and your blue might be a bit darker and deeper than mine. It would be cool to be able to see how others see for a day, if just to see how every person looks at something and perceives it differently, like the color of a house or a car.
This is actually really interesting because I just found out my one friend is color blind. So he knows that leaves are green and brown but he doesn’t see the actual color. He just knows what he’s been told his whole life. So even going clothes shopping is frustrating because he can’t always tell if something looks good. I think its so bizarre that I can see the k-cups by color but if he wants to make something he has to read each lid to pick it out. It’s really fascinating.
I have always wondered about this topic! I agree with what you are saying that we may all perceive colors a little differently. I am still confused on certain aspects of this issue though. The blue and black vs white and gold dress photo really sets me back. Sometimes I wish I could see things from someone else’s eyes to see what is seen the same and what is seen differently.