Overnight the color of the dress phenomenon blew up all over social media. If you are unsure of what this is, it was the debate over whether a dress was white and gold or blue and black. Social media went crazy, with talk shows discussing the debate and celebrities tweeting arguing what the true color of the dress was. Scientists became so intrigued that they even started their own investigation to see what color the dress really was.
Scientists began to examine the dress and they too had different opinions of the dress color. Through investigation, they realized that people see shapes and colors differently. How you see the dress is how your brain perceives that color. Ron Chrisley, director of the Centre for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex, believes that this is all a deception. While many people argued that it had to do with a persons eye color an how “open minded” one is, it really depends on the light that is being reflected in our eyes along with the surrounding colors of the image.
People see the dress in two different ways because one person either disregarding the blue while another person is unable to see the gold. A persons color sense is happens when light produces different wavelengths on a person’s eye. This wavelength then goes to the retina, which is located in the back of the eyes, which send signals to a person’s brain.
Bevil Conway, a neuroscientist at Wellesley College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, did an experiment just like many other scientists across the country. He asked 1,401 people what color dress they saw. The results were: 57% blue and black, 30% white and gold, 11% blue and brown, and 2% as something different. Through much work, they figured out that people who saw the dress as white and gold was because their eyes saw the color lighting as daylight. Mostly women and senior citizens saw it as white and gold because studies confirm they function more during the day. Younger people saw the dress as blue and black, because the brain is more active during night.
The dress debate may never end, but it sure is interesting. Scientists are still doing studies to find out more information of what causes people to see two complete different colors. Their research has begun to shed new information on the eye and natural and artificial lighting.
Work Cited
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/science/the-science-behind-the-dress-color.html?_r=0
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2015/feb/27/science-thedress-colour-illusion-the-dress-blue-black-gold-white
http://www.livescience.com/50842-dress-debate-color-perception.html
I was so happy when I saw that someone did a post about this because I have always wondered why two people could look at the exact same picture and see two completely different things. When you really think about it though, disagreements happen all the time, they just do not go viral on the internet. What it really proves is the power of is social media.
This is always an interesting topic. It actually caused fights within my friend group. I originally saw it as black and blue but when it was in certain lighting I could see the white and gold. However, when people bring it up today I cringe because I know the battle that lies ahead.
This debate has always interested me since I first heard about it. The point you bring about about how older people see the colors different than younger people really interested me, because I never even considered that. The only explanations that I previously heard was that people see the colors differently because people’s eyes process the image differently, so this new perspective is really interesting.
I remember when I first saw the dress and could not understand how people saw blue and black instead of gold and white. I tried doing my own research at the time, but no studies had been released. Some people that I know even see the dress in both colors. I have tried so many times to see it in black and blue, but till this day I am still unable to. I would love to know why this picture out of all the pictures, has this debate.