Who remembers this?
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You missed the whole point. If I take a white dress and then shine a blue lamp on it, then take a photo.The pixels will be 100% blue, but would that mean the dress itself is blue?
That's... literally not what this phenominon is about, either. Talk about missing the point.
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Can't believe it's been 10 years. I'm getting old, and I'm not even 40.
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I remember seeing different colors on different screens, so I think part of the perception difference are the saturation and brightness settings of your screen
It bothers me how far I had to dig for someone saying this. Obviously this isn’t some deep insight on how people see colors, we are literally not looking at the same washed out photo because we all have different devices with different settings.
This is like those math problems people argue about because someone purposefully wrote it ambiguously. Manufactured problems.
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How come the gold and whiters are simultaneously claiming they use more top down processing, AND that the pixels are white and gold? Looking at the pixel colour is bottom up processing.
If the dress is actually blue and black, how is doing more contextual processing supposed to get you a less accurate perception? Imagine if it was a snake and you needed to tell what colour it was so you'd know if it's going to bite you. If your perception of the snake's colour changes depending on the lighting, you're going to die.
The correct interpretation of that study is that you white and golders are doing 10,000 calculations per second and they're all wrong... Or, you know, the BOLD activation was in inhibitory pathways.
The claim mixes up how perception works and what people actually mean when they talk about top-down processing. White and gold viewers aren’t saying the pixels are literally white and gold—they’re saying the colors they perceive match most closely with that label, especially when those were the only options given. Many of them describe seeing pale blue and brown, which are the actual pixel values. That’s not bottom-up processing in the strict sense, because even that perception is shaped by how the brain interprets the image based on assumed lighting. You don’t just see wavelengths—you see surfaces under conditions your brain is constantly estimating. The dress image is ambiguous, so different people lock into different lighting models early in the process, and that influences what the colors look like. The snake example doesn’t hold up either. If the lighting changes and your perception doesn’t adjust, that’s when you’re more likely to get the snake’s color wrong. Contextual correction helps you survive, it doesn’t kill you. As for the brain scan data, higher activity in certain areas means more cognitive involvement, not necessarily error. There’s no evidence those areas were just shutting things down. The image is unstable, people resolve it differently, and that difference shows up in brain activity.
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Right, we may not perceive objectively, but there is an objective reality and it is perceivable.
The reality is that this dress is blue and black.
If you see it as white and gold, either there is a lighting issue manipulating your perception or your perception is malformed in the first place.
Your eyes should be automatically accounting for the exposure and you should be perceiving this objective reality correctly. If you aren't, you are objectively wrong, and so is your perception.
Hope that clarifies for you!
Do you realize we could both look at a red surface, both call it "red", but for me it may look like blue looks to you? We would never know, because we grew up pointing at something and calling it red.
You are calling it "malformed perception", but thats exactly my point: ALL perception is malformed. Humans are not capable of perceiving objective reality and the belief that we can is an issue at the root of many of societies problems.
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It's strange. I'm wearing sunglasses right now and it looks white and gold but when I take them off it looks blue and black.
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Woops
I missed that; bit of a sensitive topic atm...
I'm American. You have full permission to shit on us whenever you want. This place fucking sucks.
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Do you realize we could both look at a red surface, both call it "red", but for me it may look like blue looks to you? We would never know, because we grew up pointing at something and calling it red.
You are calling it "malformed perception", but thats exactly my point: ALL perception is malformed. Humans are not capable of perceiving objective reality and the belief that we can is an issue at the root of many of societies problems.
Right, so why does what you just said matter, exactly?
You do know that we know the scientific reason for why we see what colors, right? And that we can check things to determine what color they are because of that?
So... again... that doesn't matter. There is an objective reality. We might not perceive that reality the same or in an objectively correct way, but we do tend to perceive it in a CONSISTENT way.
The people that are wrong about this aren't wrong because they "see different colors" because of some "subjective perceived reality". That's not how it works. If that were the issue, it would be indiscernible and unknowable. Because we would have no idea that we are seeing different things. People know they're seeing different things, and we can explain why (like I already did. It's lighting). Context is an important part of perceiving, ykno.
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Ten years? I remember clearly that I argued about this on my friends mailing list
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Just asked my kids (Not around for the first time). One says blue and black/gray and the other said purple and green/gray. I've never known anyone who actually saw it as white and gold. Only heard that people do.
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whats next? are you gonna post who remembers yanny/laurel? bitch be fr
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It is interesting it’s only the black and blue people who don’t seem to get it and get emotional over it.
Probably bcos the white and gold people are strictly wrong and it's incredibly obvious to black and blue people but for some reason there's a stupid debate because some people are bad at looking at things?
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As in using the colour picker on the image and finding the corresponding code? That's actually an explanation that I can get behind. Classic example of trust your instrument.
I see the dress as gold and white, no matter ehow hard I try to see the other side of the coin.
Yup. Really you don't even need the color picker, as the two horizontal bars seamlessly connecting the two dresses are there to show the same thing.
I think the most fascinating thing about this example image is that I can trick myself into thinking the dress on the left is gold and white. By zooming all the way in so that I can only see the black portion of the dress inside the box and then squinting, it begins to look gold to me. Then scrolling up slowly, the blue portion comes into frame and looks white. It isn't until I zoom out that the illusion is broken.
I was once able to see the original image as black and blue (though I haven't managed it today unfortunately), and its baffling how large of a difference it is. You'd think its like some bright sky blue or something, but no, its a deep blue like in the image I sent and our eyes are laughing at us.
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Probably bcos the white and gold people are strictly wrong and it's incredibly obvious to black and blue people but for some reason there's a stupid debate because some people are bad at looking at things?
That take only works if you ignore how visual perception actually works. White and gold viewers aren’t wrong—they’re seeing the same pixel values as everyone else, but their brains interpret the lighting differently. The photo has no clear cues about illumination, so the brain fills in the blanks. Some people assume shadow or cool lighting and perceive the colors as lighter, others assume warm light and see them as darker. Both are valid perceptual outcomes given the ambiguity. But here’s the kicker: the actual pixel values in the image are pale blue and a brownish gold. So in terms of what’s literally in the image, white and gold viewers are actually closer to the raw data, regardless of what color the physical dress is in real life. The idea that black and blue people are just “right” misses that distinction completely. What’s especially funny is how often that group doubles down like they’ve uncovered some grand truth, when in reality, they’re just less able—or less willing—to grasp that perception isn’t about facts, it’s about interpretation. It’s like watching someone shout that a painting is wrong because it’s not a photograph.
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Just asked my kids (Not around for the first time). One says blue and black/gray and the other said purple and green/gray. I've never known anyone who actually saw it as white and gold. Only heard that people do.
I do, too
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I found this image to be a really good way to distill the issue down into the two different modes or perception:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress#/media/File:Wikipe-tan_wearing_The_Dress_reduced.svg
Oh wild. When I first saw this on lemmy it was white and gold. Then I clicked the image and looked and thought, "yeah, that's what I figured." Then I scrolled up and it was blue and brown. Can see white and gold again. Fun.
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Ten years? I remember clearly that I argued about this on my friends mailing list
older than 10 years, more like 12 or 13. I remember arguing about this damn dress at the ad agency I was working at in 2012.
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That take only works if you ignore how visual perception actually works. White and gold viewers aren’t wrong—they’re seeing the same pixel values as everyone else, but their brains interpret the lighting differently. The photo has no clear cues about illumination, so the brain fills in the blanks. Some people assume shadow or cool lighting and perceive the colors as lighter, others assume warm light and see them as darker. Both are valid perceptual outcomes given the ambiguity. But here’s the kicker: the actual pixel values in the image are pale blue and a brownish gold. So in terms of what’s literally in the image, white and gold viewers are actually closer to the raw data, regardless of what color the physical dress is in real life. The idea that black and blue people are just “right” misses that distinction completely. What’s especially funny is how often that group doubles down like they’ve uncovered some grand truth, when in reality, they’re just less able—or less willing—to grasp that perception isn’t about facts, it’s about interpretation. It’s like watching someone shout that a painting is wrong because it’s not a photograph.
Ig what you're failing to understand is that since I, ykno, interpret the lighting correctly? I know I'm right? And everyone that's wrong is... Bad at looking at things.
If the question were literally referring to the pixel color codes, I wouldn't argue. But the question refers literally to the physical dress.
Can you explain why people see the lighting differently?
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I've always really liked this explanation image you can find on Wikipedia page for it. Essentially, people who see white and gold are mistaking the lighting to be cold and blue-tinted, rather than warm and yellow-tinted.
The portions inside the boxes are the exact same colors, you can easily check this with a color picker.
If theyre the same color, why can i see the black outlines way clearer in the yellow dress w/ blue tint side ?
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Ig what you're failing to understand is that since I, ykno, interpret the lighting correctly? I know I'm right? And everyone that's wrong is... Bad at looking at things.
If the question were literally referring to the pixel color codes, I wouldn't argue. But the question refers literally to the physical dress.
Can you explain why people see the lighting differently?
It’s not though, it’s about the picture. We don’t have access to the dress only a digital representation which objectively is a very pale blue and brown, not black and blue.
I gave some of the reasoning as to why this happened in my original comment, but given you’ve doubled down on ‘interpreting the lighting correctly’ and that people are just ‘bad at looking at things’ I guess it’s a bit above your pay grade.
