White-gold VS black-blue dress nonsense EXPLAINED

I know. It’s absurd yet everyone is jumping on board.

A Tumblr photo of a striped dress has everyone chiming in on whether they think it’s white and gold or blue and black. Me? I was initially and still convinced it’s white and gold.

At first I thought it was a hypothetical question, like do you see what’s in front of you? Or do you have an imaginative mind?

Nope.

People really think the dress is blue and black. When CLEARLY it’s white and gold to my eyes.

To those that see white and gold the dress is in a dark shadow.

To those that see black and blue it’s washed out in bright light. (Apparently, cause I can’t see it.)

The Internet exploded with a dress color debate like nothing ever before. I saw this picture in every other tweet, Instagram, and Facebook post for a solid 7 hours. Prepare to take about this moment in history to your grandchildren.

Since nothing better has seemed to happen on the Internet since (the Llama Drama was BEFORE this!) scientists have now weighed in. The color different can be explained with simple human biology. It’s a phenomenon called “color constancy,” which causes our perceptions of shades to shift based on the influence of surrounding colors.

“Our perception of light depends on interpreting the amount of light there is in a room or scene.”

“The light hits the retina in the back of the eye where pigments fire up neutral connections to the visual cortex.”

“Your brain figures out what color light is bouncing off the thing your eyes are looking at, and essentially subtracts that color from the “real” color of the object.”

So it depends on the light bouncing off what you’re looking at. 

A second photograph next to a white wedding dress helps us determine the dress IS actually blue and black in real life! WTF! Mind blown. I feel like I’ve been cheated.