Why is the dress white gold or blue black? The secret of the “mysterious” dress: why people see it as white and gold or blue and black

There is one unique dress in the world, the color of which has become the subject of great controversy in the English-speaking segment of the Internet. As often happens when controversial situations, users are divided into two camps: the first are firmly convinced that the color of the dress is blue-black, while others see a combination of white and gold.

It all started with the fact that on February 25, a Tumblr user under the pseudonym Swiked published on her blog a photo of a dress with a seemingly simple question at first glance: what color it was: white and gold or blue and black. The girl claimed that the color of the dress became the subject of a dispute between her and her friends, which resulted in a quarrel.

The photo quickly spread across the Internet and gained immense popularity. Within hours, the photo sparked widespread debate. She had her own hashtag #TheDress, which quickly topped the trends in the American segment of Twitter. Almost immediately after the start of the discussion, quite witty photographs and jokes on this topic began to pour in.

Not only ordinary users, but also celebrities took part in the discussions. Thus, the American television star and fashion model, Kim Kardashian, told her Twitter followers that she argued with her husband, the famous American rapper and producer Kanye West, about the color of her dress. American singer Taylor Swift said that she doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about, since “it’s obvious that the dress is blue and black.” At the same time, one of the main characters of The X-Files, David Duchovny, saw green and Blue colour A. BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith noted that his daughter thinks the color of the dress is greenish-blue, and they are already heading to the nearest department of the city hospital [this is, of course, a joke].

What color is that dress? I see white & gold. Kanye sees black & blue, who is color blind?

Even tech brands tried to benefit from the debate over dress color:

Of course, in the lively discussion around the mysterious dress, they did not forget to mention the Illuminati.

However, there is a logical explanation for all this madness that this dress has created.

A person’s color perception depends on the individual characteristics of his vision. The retina, the structure of which is extremely complex, is responsible for the interpretation of colors in the organ of the visual system. The outermost layer is light-(color-)perceiving and consists of neuroepithelial cells - rods and cones, which perceive light and colors. Cones are responsible for the perception of colors, and rods are responsible for the perception of shades such as gray, black and white. Cones “work” only when the required amount of light hits the object. So some can see the fabric white, and for others, the color of the same fabric is blue due to insufficient lighting.

The retina of the human eye contains three types of cones that perceive light in the violet-blue, green-yellow and yellow-red parts of the spectrum. As for the color black, which many perceive as gold, there is such a thing as additive color mixing. By mixing the three primary colors (red, green and blue) in a certain ratio, most colors perceived by humans can be reproduced. In contrast to additive color mixing, there are subtractive synthesis schemes. In contrast to additive color mixing, there are subtractive synthesis schemes. As more and more colors are added, the final color will become darker until it is completely black.

Users who believe the dress color is blue-black have more efficiently functioning cones, which ultimately leads to subtractive mixing. Representatives of the second camp, who consider the dress to be white and gold, received cones that are less sensitive to light, which causes additive mixing. If you increase the brightness of your smartphone or monitor screen, you can see how the dress changes color from white-gold to blue-black.

Another glitch that our brain can throw out was revealed by a photograph of a dress that a girl posted on the Internet. She and her friends got into an argument, and opinions were equally divided: half claimed that the dress was white and gold, the other half that it was black and blue.

Illusion of the day!

Thousands of users were also confused. Even Kim Kardashian tweeted that she thought the dress was white, while her husband Kanye West clearly replied that it was blue and black.

I also agreed with Kim on the first point. After all, if you lighten the photo in Photoshop, the answer seems obvious.

But another answer seems obvious if the photo is slightly darkened.

So whose side is the truth on?

So, don’t believe your eyes if you think the dress is white and gold:

Moreover, on the official website there is no white color.

Why is this happening? Our visual system, as a result of evolution, has learned to filter out the shade of incident light in order to see natural color subject. But some people's brains filter out blue shades, and some have yellow ones, which leads to a difference in perception.

In addition, if you immediately saw the dress as white and gold, and now you really distinguish between blue and black, then science has an answer to this - we are still not machines, and consciousness can change the feeling of the picture seen in accordance with the context.

Is the dress blue or gold? There are heated discussions on the Internet about color.

People around the world are arguing over the real color of a dress, a photo of which has gone viral. social network Tumblr. And the main culprit of this phenomenon is the Scottish singer Kathleen McNeil, who posted the photo on her account.

I remember in February 2015, a friend showed me a photo of a dress on her smartphone and asked the question: “What color is it?”, at that moment I thought - why would she ask me, because her color vision is fine. At that moment I saw it blue-black (and I still see it in that color if I come across a photo phenomenon on the Internet). And imagine my surprise when she said that she sees only white and gold dress. It was then that I started asking everyone about the color of the dress, I was interested in finding like-minded people.

As it turned out, this fun game Even world celebrities decided to play. It was interesting to see how everyone saw the dress, to compare it with themselves and roughly figure out what opinions there are more on this matter, which team you belong to.

In the original, the dress is blue with black lace. Designer Roman Originals made it in this color. But what makes people see him differently than he really is?

Scientists and doctors have dispelled the controversy and explained the reason why people think it is one color or another.

The explanation lies in the anatomical structure of the eye, namely the retina of our eye, which consists of the so-called rods and cones. These retinal elements transmit signals in their own way. For example, cones are responsible for color perception, and rods recognize a light signal. Rods respond well to shadows, twilight, darkness, and help the human eye adapt to darkness. Thus, we can conclude that we perceive the world more with rods than with cones. More details about the effect in the video below.

This is why people see different colored dresses, because the retina of each person is unique and contains a different number of rods and cones, therefore, some have more rods and some have more cones.

Don't be afraid, the fact that each of us sees differently does not mean that you have problems with nervous system or you have poor eyesight. As you know, the brain receives signals from the surrounding world through vision. By analyzing the received signal, our thinking triggers the transformation mechanism, which is why it turns out that depending on how much an object is shaded, its color is distorted.

Also, one of the theories of the dress phenomenon states that the reason lies in the reflection of light from the object. Color is determined by the wavelength of reflected light, and the brain focuses on these light waves and converts it into color. In the photograph of the dress, in addition to the dress itself, there are many objects that surround it, and plus the background of the photograph itself gives an optical illusion. Our brain, processing all the colors in a photograph, cannot immediately give a definite answer, since the colors hang down and interrupt each other.

For many scientists who have devoted decades to color research, this example is the most revealing.

The unusual clue to the photograph of the blue-black or white-and-gold dress was also put forward based on a study of human volunteers. And what’s surprising is that a person who belongs to the “lark” type of person sees the dress exclusively in white and gold, and the “owl” type – in black and blue.

No matter how many theories have been put forward on this matter, every person has the right to their own vision of this photo. This once again confirms that each of us is unique.

Published 02/28/15 00:46

A serious controversy broke out on social media over a photo of a dress posted on Tumblr. Meanwhile, scientists tried to explain why for some the dress is blue-black, and for others it is white and gold.

What color is the dress: blue or white?

A dispute has flared up on the Internet about the color of the dress, a photograph of which appeared on the blog of Scottish resident Caitlin McNeil, writes MK. The problem is that three-quarters of voters believe that the dress is white and gold, the rest - that the dress is blue or even changes its color.

So, on February 25, a girl under the nickname Swiked published a photo of a dress on Tumblr and asked her friends a question about what color it was.

"Guys, help me, this is intkbbee Is the dress white and gold or blue and black? Me and my friends can't agree and we're going crazy."

After a couple of hours, millions of people were divided into two camps: some claimed that the outfit was blue and black, while others said it was white and gold. But even after the girl confirmed that it was indeed blue with black stripes, the online debate did not calm down...

A photograph of a strange dress, posted the day before by the BuzzFeed portal, literally blew up the Internet, turning the topic into a media virus.

In the photo: is the dress blue or white with gold?

Scientists are interested in a dress that changes color

Meanwhile, neuroscientist from Washington State University (USA) Jane Neitz tried to explain why for some people the dress is blue-black, and for others it is white and gold.

The expert claims that the whole point is in the work of the brain, which figures out what color light is reflected from an object and separates this color from the one it considers “real”.

"Our visual system is supposed to throw out information about lighting and extract information about the color that is actually reflected," Neitz said.

It is noted that the specialist has studied color perception for 30 years. She noted that differences in the perception of dress color are the most significant in her practice.

Different people either ignore the blue hues, seeing the image as white and gold, or ignore the yellow hues, seeing the blue and black dress.

There is also an opinion. So which one color scheme how different objects are perceived depends on whether there are more rods or cones in the retina of a particular person, and on the type of light that illuminates the object.

Meanwhile, Randolph-Macon College psychology professor Cedar Riener explained that people make judgments based on how they perceive the light in a photograph differently: “Some people decide that the photo shows a blue-black dress that is well-lit (or less reflective). Others think it's a less lit white and gold outfit (it's in the shadows but more reflective)."

John Borghi, who studies cognitive neurobiology at Rockefeller University, spoke about the dependence of what a person sees in the picture on the set of his impressions and expectations, as well as on the level of attention and even eye movements, reports TSN. For example, the idea of ​​the color of a dress can be influenced by what a person looked at before.

In the photo: the real color of the much-discussed dress is blue and black

What color do celebrities think they wear?

Celebrities' opinions were also divided, reports Super.Ru. Armenian Kim Kardashian sees the dress as white and gold, and Kanye West as black and blue. Dima Bilan - white with a slight cornflower blue tint and mustard. Yana Rudkovskaya - black with lavender color. Alena Vodonaeva - lilac with mustard color. Vyacheslav Manucharov - blue and gold. Alesya Kafelnikova - white and gold. Andrey Malakhov - white and gold. Evgeni Plushenko - black and blue. Irina Dubtsova - white and gold. Alena Doletskaya - amethyst blue and chocolate. Nikolay Baskov - white and gold. Julianne Moore - white and gold. Taylor Swift - black and blue. Ksenia Borodina - white with mustard color. Lolita - black with turquoise color. Joseph Prigogine - gold and silver. Valeria - gold and silver.

Internet users' opinions about the dress were divided: the dress got its own hashtag #TheDress. However, the author of the photo had to admit that the dress was actually blue and black. That is, the published image was processed.

But while non-trivial disputes continue online about what color the dress is, the TSN.ua editors have collected the funniest comments from Internet users on social networks.

website- At the end of last week, a photo appeared on the Internet that divided the world into two camps. As you may have guessed, we are talking about a magic dress. In the eyes of some people it is black and blue, in others it is white and golden... The editors have collected the facts that scientists told about.

On February 25, a girl under the nickname Swiked posted a photo of the dress on Tumblr and asked her friends a simple question about what color it was. Within a matter of hours, millions of people were divided into two camps: some claimed that the outfit was blue and black, while others said it was white and gold. But even after the author of the photo confirmed that it was indeed blue with black stripes, the debate online did not stop and continues to this day. Even scientists entered into the debate. They decided to finally explain what color the dress actually was. Washington State University neuroscientist Jane Neitz says human eyes and brains have evolved to discern color in a sunlit world. Light enters the eye through the lens - waves different lengths report different colors. Light hits the retina at the back of the eye, where pigments activate neural connections in the visual cortex, the part of the brain that translates signals into images. This theory is put forward by a popular American website.

“The brain figures out what color of light is reflected from the object that the eyes see, and separates that color from the color it considers “real.” “So people don't consider the color blue, and then they see white and gold,” added Bevil Conway, another neuroscientist at Wellesley College.
For example, even what a person looked at before looking at a dress can have a direct impact on what colors they see. The level of lighting in the room in which the person is located also matters.

Lighting is very important for color recognition, which is a combination of how much light falls on an object and how much light is reflected from it. In the case of the dress, some people perceive the image as blue-black because it seems to their eye that the lighting is strong enough and there is little reflected light, others perceive more reflected color, so they see the dress as white and gold.
After this topic became so popular on the Internet, Caitlin McNeil, who published the photo, said that in fact the dress is blue and black.

“In addition to the poor quality of the image, the dispute is also explained by the way we perceive light. Our brain processes light waves of different lengths, each corresponding to a different color. As Bevil Conway, a scientist who studies color and vision, explained to Wired, daylight influences and changes the way we perceive the colors of objects. Therefore, when looking at a dress, our brain makes allowances for daylight and “cuts off” one of the undertones - bluish or yellowish. Due to the individuality of perception, it seems to some that the dress is white and gold, and to others that it is blue and black. In addition, this effect can also be explained by an optical illusion: the way we perceive the color of an object is influenced by the background on which it is located and the lighting. The photo may have been taken in bluish light, which may appear white to many."

The most detailed answer was given by Washington professor Jay Nates: “The dress is visible blue-black or white-gold depending on whether your eye has more rods or cones and the lighting conditions in the room. (This is made possible by the different colors that mix around you.) Different people have different "rod" and "cone" remnants—those with color blindness are primarily affected.
But the "rods" are also very sensitive to light. Rods detect color using a pigment called rhodopsin, which is very sensitive to low light, but flashes and is destroyed in higher light. high levels illumination And it should take about 45 minutes to adjust (well, just like your eyes will need time to adapt to the night, in other words). Basically, if you look at a dress in bright light and see one color, then if you go into a dark room for half an hour and come back, the dress will quite possibly change color.
Also the color of the dress is different different people associated with individual differences in color perception. If you've ever tried to work with photography, you've probably encountered white balance - the camera tries to balance it in inappropriate lighting conditions. Your brain does its own white balance, which automatically means that you are either not paying attention to blue tint, see a white and gold image, or, ignoring yellow tint, you see a blue-black photograph.

Ophthalmologists say that different perceptions of the color of a dress do not mean that you have problems with your eyes or mental health. Every person has individual characteristics vision. The brain processes light waves that hit the retina in a unique way, so some people see some colors and others see different colors.
Eat scientific explanation why people see different colors in the same picture. This optical illusion. Objects reflect light at different wavelengths or colors, and the human brain determines color from the reflected light. Objects around you can also reflect color and influence your perception. In this photo there are many other colors around and they are mixed, and the brain cannot immediately determine the color of the dress. So, people who see the ambient light as dark see white instead of blue. It depends on the brain's perception process. Washington University professor Jay Neitz says he's been studying color differences for 30 years, and this case is one of the clearest differences he's ever seen. By the way, the dress seemed white to him.