Is The Dress Blue or White? Why The Internet Just Lost Its Mind

[Fdzzaigl]

I thought it was pretty funny to see how differently people can perceive things. All of my family members saw the dress as white & gold, while I cannot see it in any other way as blue & black.

They even called me insane for seeing it in a different way Though I'm right in the end, muhahah!

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

I think the images that we're shown differ. This one looks blue with darker gold/tan/black. The one I was shown this morning looked absolutely white and gold. I think some people are seeing a white-balanced version of this picture:

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Untitled-12.jpg

The one I was shown first was the one on the far left. That still looks mostly white (but light blue) and gold while the middle one is clearly blue and black (or dark gold like it appears around the neck).

Thank Christ someone posted this! I was going mad thinking "I swear when I first saw it it was gold and white."

 

[Lightknight]

I think the images that we're shown differ. This one looks blue with darker gold/tan/black. The one I was shown this morning looked absolutely white and gold. I think some people are seeing a white-balanced version of this picture:

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Untitled-12.jpg

The one I was shown first was the one on the far left. That still looks mostly white (but light blue) and gold while the middle one is clearly blue and black (or dark gold like it appears around the neck).

Thank Christ someone posted this! I was going mad thinking "I swear when I first saw it it was gold and white."

I just want to clarify that we were not really given different images. I have since learned that the trick is an optical illusion.

Basically, I started off seeing the dress as gold and white in the morning. Then, I saw the actual color of the dress in other pictures and when I looked back at the same picture it started looking blue and black to me. That was when I found the following article:

Eventually I found this article discussing it: http://www.buzzfeed.com/claudiakoerner/this-might-explain-why-that-dress-looks-blue-and-black-and-w#.ogxgY3rzYz

It basically says that if you see gold and white your eyes may be trying to compensate for poor lighting and I recall saying that I thought the dress was in shade the morning when I thought it was gold and white. If you see it as blue and black your eyes aren't accounting for shade and so they see it at face value. The bright background plays a non-trivial role in this.

Armed with this information, I looked at the picture for awhile trying to imagine it in shade and right before my eyes the picture changed to white and gold indicating that it really is just an optical illusion rather than much of the other nonsense spouted online.

 

[DoPo]

Edit: Is it normal for the borders of this thread to be yellow, descending into white as you scroll lower?

What do you mean? It should be blue and black.

I can confirm that the side borders of this thread are indeed blue.

Yup, same here:

I must say, however, that your screenshot looks weird - the text is all jumbled up. How do you even read that?

 

[Vicarious Reality]

White and yellow for gods sake

Black? BLACK?

 

[scw55]

I see white reflecting blue and a sort of browny or disappointing mustardy gold.