Strange dress

[RedFox]

Personally I love optical illusions, because they are good reminders that what we believe may be the truth is not always the case - it's all based on our biases (biological, psychological, emotional etc).

From the article I linked earlier:

Both squares are grey, but you see one as yellow and one as blue. It happens because in both cases you unconsciously correct for what colour you think the source of light is.

We do that all the time to get by in the world: the reason you see a piece of white paper as white regardless of whether you're outside (under the blue sky) or inside (under red-tinted candle light) is because you shift the colour of the paper in your mind back to white – you white balance it. Or in technical terms, you "discount" for the "colour of the illuminant".

In the illusion above, on the left you correct for a light source you think is yellow, making the grey square appear blue. And on the right you do the opposite.

So now to that dress. The key thing is that we are correcting for an imagined light source, just as in the example above. But there are two features of this picture that make it very difficult to interpret, which means people are likely to see it differently.

So here are the two colours from the dress shown on there own - what do those who saw white/gold see now? What happens if you go and look at the dress on the first page?

 

[Charade]

I see all three.

(Don't know how to reproduce the picture. Was hoping it would move with the quote)

It doesn't seem mysterious to me. The picture in the middle is the first photo in this post. Lavender blue / brownish black. The one on the right is the same as the one the woman is wearing. Blue / black. The picture on the left looks underexposed. Washed out brownish gold and light whitish blue.

"Stop. Stop. You're all right!" ( line from a commercial, can't remember product, from the 90's)

 

[Ask-Seek-Knock]

I saw black and blue from the start and never saw anything else and my husband only sees white and gold. When we first saw the story on our local news I thought it was an advertising gimmick and the newscasters were playing along with it. But then I said out loud to the TV, "The stupid dress is black and blue!" My husband looked at me funny and said, "What? Its white and gold!". I said, "Really?" because I thought that NOW he was playing along. We went back and forth for a couple minutes until I realized he was being serious. Too funny!

 

[Minas Tirith]

For me it changes colors

The first time I saw it online it was white and gold. Yesterday I read the thread here and the attached picture showed a blue-black dress. I thought, Well, its another picture, where the blue tones are more enhanced, whatever. But this morning looking at the SAME picture again, it had changed to white and gold

I would be interested if this is just a digital thing: Is there anyone of you who has a printer and whose household is opposed about the color? And when you print it out, people still see different colors? And what about the real dress, hardly believable that people would see you in different colors wearing it...

I mean this could bring the whole human creditability of observation to a fall: "No, officer, I saw a blue and black car." "Well, the car I saw was white and had a golden spoiler."

What if they testing new technology here... I mean, how far have they gotten with these holograms anyway ...

M.T.

 

[liffy]

It's easier for me to see the blue and black version if the colors nearby are dark, and/or if my screen is emitting little light. I fall back to the white and gold if the screen is well lit, and the website background is white.

 

[Aurgo]

Light lavender blue and "old" gold color is what I see. Unless someone is color blind to some extent or their computer monitor colors are messed up, can't see how it could be white, and definitely not black! Unless I'm color blind and/or my monitor is messed up.

Hahaha I'm with you, how could you see a white in there?!
Lavender/purple & dull/ old Gold!

 

[will01]

Initially I saw black and blue, no matter how long I looked. Then, when scrolling the screen back to the top, it briefly appeared white and brown until the screen stopped. Then it was black and blue again. Checked again, going back to the first page of the thread and the same thing, initially white/brown then black/blue.

 

[H-KQGE]

Just catching up with this thread. I remember when I first saw this on the "news" & my eyes rolled... I just knew the meme would follow on social media in a big way, which is why the lame-stream picked it up. Anyway, I saw blue/brown/gold... which is what I've seen since. I did think that there was a difference in lighting or some people's brains going funny. Or there were different versions. Dunno how white was thrown in though! Still, optical illusions?

 

[s-kur]

Well, at the time I have the only correct explanation which have a sense for me. I suppose that difference in colours caused with source of light that was "chosen" by observer. Some people told about background sunlight which might be an explanation of discernment difference of colours.

Hm...neon light also changes white into blue color, and, perhaps a person who sees a blue color perceives it as neon-lighted and automatically changes it into white (because there is no neon lights really(?). But in this case what would cause a person to think about neon-lightened object?

 

[rrraven]

-https://www.facebook.com/252301684946303/photos/a.252307391612399.1073741828.252301684946303/413528105490326/?type=1

maybe its a age related thing
http://galileospendulum.org/2012/04/20/claude-monet-and-the-subjectivity-of-color/

When he was 82 years old, Claude Monet suffered from such severe cataracts that he agreed to have the lens removed from his right eye. Cataracts that occur in elderly people turn the lens of the eye cloudy and yellowed, much like old glass can become discolored. The yellowing of the lens works as a filter, reducing the amount of blue light that reaches the retina. However, normal, healthy lenses filter out ultraviolet (UV) light, so when Monet’s lens was removed, he not only could see the blue hues again, he could also see a limited amount of UV—which he attempted to paint, as the images below demonstrate.

Monet's paintings of the same scene, using his cataract-afflicted left eye (left) and his right eye with the lens removed (right).

 

[loreta]

I saw blue and goldy-brown. Doesn't change.

me too..

Me too, blue and brown. Maybe this is something in relation with the color of our eyes?

 

[Mr.Cyan]

I saw brown and blue with no change too.....but i am red-green colour blind, hence its normal for me to see changes in colour on the same picture ;)

 

[Yozilla]

Interesting how this dress issue has been launched in public domain as if on cue: First this streaky dress, than there was some news of a stolen pricy dress from Oscar show and even today one Balkan turbo-folk superstar (Severina) is all over local media in quite similar dress - how big this could get?

 

[naorma]

Gold and White - not changing! :)

 

[shijing]

So here are the two colours from the dress shown on there own - what do those who saw white/gold see now? What happens if you go and look at the dress on the first page?

I first saw white and gold, and still see it consistently -- I've never been able to see the black/blue version. I'm not sure what to think about all the explanations offered so far -- the background itself can't explain it, I don't think, because when you zoom in on the dress (like you did) and take screenshots, two people sitting side-by-side will still see the two different color schema. If it's an artefact of the light source, I don't know why this phenomenon doesn't happen more often.

I agree that the strangest is not the picture of the dress, but the way the meme propagates.

Me too -- from what I've heard, it exploded all over social media with lightning speed, especially in the beginning. If it wasn't a purposeful social engineering experiment, it may as well have been!