Optics and Illusion- Sophie Ungless
In 2015, a photograph of a dress went viral because of the polarizing perception around its color. The internet went crazy over whether it was black and blue, or white and gold.
Almost five years later, I wanted to look into the science of why two drastically different color combinations could be perceived because I can only see it as black and blue. The illusion comes from individual perception, which is caused by photoreceptors in the retina behind the eye. The two photoreceptors are called rods and cones; rods are in charge of how we see our peripheral vision and at night, while cones are in charge of how we see daylight and color.
As humans, we have more cones than rods, which means we are better at seeing colors than seeing at night. Additionally, we have three different kinds of cones, which are “tuned to pick up green, red, or blue wavelengths of light” (Spector). When light hits our retinas, “Our brains determine the color that we see by blending the signals that each receptor senses — like how a TV screen made of millions of different-colored pixels makes an image” (Spector).
The most important part of understanding why there is confusion surrounding the color of the dress is taking note of the fact that the original image has an overall blue tint to it. According to Cedar Riener, an associate professor of psychology at Randolph-Macon College, the debate about black and blue versus white and gold is most likely because of the “quality of light that comes into our retina” (Reiner). He states that “some people are deciding that there is a fair amount of illumination on a blue and black dress, [while] other people are deciding that it is less illumination on a white/ gold dress” (Riener). Essentially, it comes down to our own visual biases. Some people’s eyes and brains “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” (Conway).
As I read Riener and Conway’s research, I felt like it was all going over my head a bit. As I continued to read an article in Business Insider, the author included a graphic that helped me understand it all a bit more. From what I can gather, people who focus more on how the “gold,” which is a black design that picked up on some yellow light, they will accept the blue as white because whites can appear to have a blue tint in daylight. These are the people who are discounting the blue side. For the people who see black and blue, they are focused more on the blue and accept the yellow in the black as just plain black. These are the people who discount the gold side.
Since this dress broke the internet, I’ve been thinking about how people can have individual biases on how they perceive colors, but I never really looked into the science behind it. I think it is often easy to assume the way I see color is how everyone perceives it, and it is really interesting to think that something that would seem so objective, such as color, can still have room for some bias.
Almost five years later, I wanted to look into the science of why two drastically different color combinations could be perceived because I can only see it as black and blue. The illusion comes from individual perception, which is caused by photoreceptors in the retina behind the eye. The two photoreceptors are called rods and cones; rods are in charge of how we see our peripheral vision and at night, while cones are in charge of how we see daylight and color.
As humans, we have more cones than rods, which means we are better at seeing colors than seeing at night. Additionally, we have three different kinds of cones, which are “tuned to pick up green, red, or blue wavelengths of light” (Spector). When light hits our retinas, “Our brains determine the color that we see by blending the signals that each receptor senses — like how a TV screen made of millions of different-colored pixels makes an image” (Spector).
The most important part of understanding why there is confusion surrounding the color of the dress is taking note of the fact that the original image has an overall blue tint to it. According to Cedar Riener, an associate professor of psychology at Randolph-Macon College, the debate about black and blue versus white and gold is most likely because of the “quality of light that comes into our retina” (Reiner). He states that “some people are deciding that there is a fair amount of illumination on a blue and black dress, [while] other people are deciding that it is less illumination on a white/ gold dress” (Riener). Essentially, it comes down to our own visual biases. Some people’s eyes and brains “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” (Conway).
As I read Riener and Conway’s research, I felt like it was all going over my head a bit. As I continued to read an article in Business Insider, the author included a graphic that helped me understand it all a bit more. From what I can gather, people who focus more on how the “gold,” which is a black design that picked up on some yellow light, they will accept the blue as white because whites can appear to have a blue tint in daylight. These are the people who are discounting the blue side. For the people who see black and blue, they are focused more on the blue and accept the yellow in the black as just plain black. These are the people who discount the gold side.
Since this dress broke the internet, I’ve been thinking about how people can have individual biases on how they perceive colors, but I never really looked into the science behind it. I think it is often easy to assume the way I see color is how everyone perceives it, and it is really interesting to think that something that would seem so objective, such as color, can still have room for some bias.
https://www.businessinsider.com/science-of-the-white-and-gold-blue-and-black-dress-illusion-2015-2
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/science/the-science-behind-the-dress-color.html
https://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/
Comments
Post a Comment