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A seemingly black and white issue of color identification turned out actually be quite a gray area. Or more precisely — a debate between two distinct color camps: blue/black or white/gold.
It all started innocently enough: a tumblr user posted a picture of a dress. It seemed that neither she nor her friends could settle on the actual colors of the dress, which had apparently been photographed in less-than-ideal lighting conditions. Accompanying the post was a plea for assistance: please help decide if the dress is blue with black trim, or white with gold trim. And then that post went viral…
What is most notable about the great dress debate is that people seemed to be firmly of a certain opinion — convinced of its absolute truth. There were those, however who claimed they could see white and gold one moment, and then blue/black the next, with a maddening shift in perception taking place before their very eyes.
The scientific truth behind why a blue dress can appear white (since the original post the true color of the dress has been positively identified, and it is indeed blue with black trim) is exactly that — a matter of perception. And considering that the majority of people polled did see it as white, this is no fluke of observation. The human visual system is a complex interaction between eye and brain — input and analysis of that information. When viewing color we will also, quite automatically, take into consideration the lighting conditions under which that color is being viewed.
If a white object is viewed under, say, red-tinted lighting, that white object naturally takes on a pinkish hue. Our brain is capable of compensating for the red tinge caused by the lighting conditions, and the information regarding color is processed with this in mind. Therefore, while the eye sees the red tinge, the brain thinks “white.”
A similar phenomenon seems to have been taking place with the dress. The lighting in the picture was perceived by many as bluish, tinting a white dress blue. So while the eye may have seen a light blue color, it was interpreted by the brain as white bathed in blue light.
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