London - Some people were adamant that it was clearly blue and black. Others insisted it could only be white and gold. And each group thought the other was seeing things.
Now, scientists have weighed in to the debate, and confirmed that those who thought ‘The Dress’ was white and gold had been fooled – by a trick of the light.
‘The Dress’ caught the public’s imagination in February, after a picture was posted on the Tumblr website with the question: “Guys please help me – is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Me and my friends can’t agree and are freaking out.”
Soon, the post from the remote Scottish island of Colonsay went global on Twitter, splitting opinion between friends, family members, workmates and celebrities. Even after manufacturer Roman Originals confirmed the dress was blue and black, millions refused to believe it.
Now, three scientific studies, including one from the University of Bradford, have explained why. Scientists say the conflict is due to the mechanism the brain uses to ensure an object is seen to be the same colour, no matter what time of day or type of light it is bathed in. In bright, midday sun, daylight is blueish and so the brain subtracts blue light. In artificial light, it gets rid of yellows – and in both cases an object should appear the same.
Crucially, the mechanism relies on other nearby colours, such as reds and greens, to judge how much blue or yellow to remove. In the case of the dress, these reference colours were missing. Blue is also particularly tricky for the brain to deal with.
Neuroscientist Bevil Conway, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, who asked more than 1 400 people about the dress, says it is likely those who spend a lot of time outdoors, or had just been in daylight, took away too much blue and saw it as white, while those more used to artificial light subtracted yellows and perceived it as blue.
There was even a third group, who perceive the dress as being blue and brown, the journal Current Biology reports.
Dr Conway said: “I initially thought it was just a crummy photograph. But it has become clear it is a probe for understanding how the brain works.”
Daily Mail