Are All of Us Colorblind?
By Anthony Pena
You may remember several years ago in 2015 when a certain image of a dress went viral over the debate about what color it was. Many people saw the dress as white-and-gold, whereas others saw it as blue-and-black. I saw it as blue-and-black, but a lot of my friends and family members saw it as white-and-gold. Are we all colorblind and neither of those color pairings are the true colors? No, that is not the case; the reason behind our differences in perception is due to a phenomenon known as color constancy. Though, I do have one question, “what colors do you perceive in these images?”
These images from 2017, as shown in an article from The Guardian, show a shoe that sparked another debate like the dress from 2015 (Rawlinson, 2017). The individual who posted these images asked the question if the shoes were pink-and-white or teal-and-gray.
Much like the dress, these images provoke one’s thoughts about the true color of the shoe. As Dr. Julia Shaw puts it, the way we all see the colors in the dress differently from one another is due to a phenomenon known as color constancy (Shaw, 2017). According to an article from the Journal of Vision by Stacey Aston and Anya Hurlbert, “The color constancy hypothesis for #theDress phenomenon implies that individual differences in perception of the photograph arise because observers make different inferences about the incident illumination spectrum in the scene” (Aston & Hurlbert, 2017). To put it simply, color constancy is how our brain understands the colors in an image based on how the image is lit (in terms of brightness).
As it was with the dress, the same holds true for the shoe, in that there is a correct answer for what the object’s color is. In the case of the dress, color constancy told us that, since we viewed the lighting in the image as coming from a natural source (the sun), we perceived the dress as blue-and-black, whereas if we viewed the lighting as artificial, we would perceive the dress as white-and-gold. In the case of the shoe, however, a slight problem arises; the image on the right, which was the one that was being spread across the internet, was altered in editing software to make it seem less pink. The image on the left is the original image, which is very much pink-and-white in coloration.
Although the image on the right was edited, it does help show us that lighting matters when it comes to perceiving color. The photo of the dress is ambiguous as to where the light comes from so our brains must infer the light source. As stated previously, if we believe the dress to be lit artificially, then we perceive it as white-and-gold. In the case of the shoe, the image that was being spread around the internet was altered to have duller colors, so many would see it as teal-and-gray, yet there were still individuals that perceived it as pink-and-white. Even with the edited lighting, certain individuals were able to see through the sleight and perceive the shoe as pink-and-white.
The next time you see an image go viral for a debate on an object’s true colors, just remember to take note of the image’s lighting. As Selena Gomez sings at the end of the Wizards of Waverly Place theme song, “everything is not what it seems” (Gomez, 2009).
References
Aston, S., & Hurlbert, A. (2017). What #theDress reveals about the role of illumination priors in color perception and color constancy. Journal of Vision, 17(9), 4. https://doi.org/10.1167/17.9.4
Shaw, J. (2017). The memory illusion: remembering, forgetting, and the science of false memory. Random House UK.
Rawlinson, K. (2017, October 12). Shoe color question could put 2015 dress debate in the shade. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/12/shoe-colour-question-could-put-2015-dress-debate-in-the-shade
Corum, J. (2015, February 27). Is That Dress White and Gold or Blue and Black? (Published 2015). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/28/science/white-or-blue-dress.html
Gomez, S. (2009). Everything is Not What It Seems [T.V.]. Disney. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlmAO-koYWA
Alisha. (2017). The real shoe is pink & white, okay? [Online Image]. In Twitter.com. https://twitter.com/zjmah/status/918234911290613760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E918234911290613760%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftechnology%2F2017%2Foct%2F12%2Fshoe-colour-question-could-put-2015-dress-debate-in-the-shade