this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2025
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This is exactly the thing.
Whatever the dress may be in reality, the photo of it that was circulated was either exposed or twiddled with such that the pixels it's made of are indeed slightly bluish grey trending towards white (i.e. above 50% grey) and tanish browny gold.
That is absolutely not up for debate. Those are the color values of those pixels, end of discussion.
Edit to add: This entire debacle is a fascinating case of people either failing to or refusing to separate the concept of a physical object versus its very inaccurate representation. The photograph of the object is not the object: ce n'est pas une robe.
The people going around in this thread and elsewhere putting people down and calling them "stupid" or whatever else only because they know that the physical dress itself is black and blue based on external information are studiously ignoring the fact that this is not what the photograph of it shows. That's because the photograph is extremely cooked and is not an accurate depiction. The debate only exists at all if one party or the other does not have the complete set of information, and at this point in history now that this stupid meme has been driven into the ground quite thoroughly I should hope that all of us do.
It's true that our brains can and will interpret false color data based on either context or surrounding contrast, and it's possible that somebody deliberately messed with the original image to amplify this effect in the first place. But the fact remains that arguing about what the dress is versus how it's been inaccurately depicted is stupid, and anyone still trying that at this late stage is probably doing so in bad faith.
The "white" pixels are literally blue. The "black" ones can be considered gold due to the lighting.
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?
But you can clearly see that the lighting is bright yellow-white, not blue...
The yellow background could be lit by another window or a different light source, so one could argue we don't have a good reference to tell. But the point is that the "picture of a thing" is not "the thing" itself, and there is always a possibility that they are different.
If I showed you a picture of a green surface, and asked you what color it is, would you say that it's white and that there's probably green light shining on it?
No, but it doesn't mean the other answer is invalid too. If there is no reference in the picture to tell what kind of light condition it was shot at, both answers could be possible.
So if we're just going by what's possible then the wall could be yellow and have a blue light, or it could be white with one yellow and one blue light.
That's... literally not what this phenominon is about, either. Talk about missing the point.
That is literally what the argument is caused by, adaptive perception to lighting conditions.
That's less than half of the related concepts.
It's exactly the point. White fabric will appear blue in blue light, which is why some people see this white dress and think it's blue.
Yes a very light blue, nobody is seeing brilliant white. But on a colour slider it’s much closer to white than the ‘true’ dark blue of the dress. If you sample the sleeve or whatever that is hanging over it’ll be even closer to pure white.
Earlier today I was sat in a dark room reading this thread, I looked at the picture above and it clearly had blue tones with warm dark grey. The dress was obviously blue/black.
I'm sitting outside in the light now, looking at the same picture on the same phone in the same app and now it's white and gold/brown.
Without going on my pc and colour picking it myself I can't tell what colour the picture really is since my eyes seem all to happy to lie to me about it.
They're not stupid, their visual cortex just lacks the ability to calibrate to context. You can see in the picture that the scene is very brightly lit. If your visual cortex is in working order, you'll adjust your perception of the colours. The picture reveals that some people struggle to do that.
fMRI studies show that white-and-gold perceivers exhibit more activity in frontal and parietal brain regions, suggesting that their interpretation involves more top-down processing. This means they are more, not less, engaged in contextual interpretation.
Some differences may relate to physiological traits like macular pigment density, which affects how much blue light is absorbed before reaching the retina. People with higher density tend to see white and gold
Color perception is not only about the visual cortex’s function but about the image’s properties and the brain’s inferential processes. You’d know this if you weren’t a dumb blue-n-black’er
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.
I think all of the white-gold people are really condescending, explaining how their perception is correct and how blue-black people don't understand the image. Also, if they explain how the image looks white-gold enough, that the blue-black people will be wrong.
Well the ones that do understand the image by definition won't need it explained. There's no 'correct', if we're talking pixels/digital representation, it's white-gold (or light-blue and brown if we're being pedantic), if we're talking about what the physical dress is, it's blue and black.
If it were a white and gold dress and the light was reversed to shadow it'd likely be the other way about; some people would interpret it as the pixels displayed (blue and black), and others would subconsciously revert it to white and gold.
You're saying it's actually white-gold? Do you think the color on the left is actually white? White is on the right here, for your reference:
In the colors below, you think they are the same color? Brown is not the same color as gold
If you were tasked with painting something gold, would you paint it brown instead?
No it’s a very light blue that looks like white+shadow.
The gold is a browny gold but the options were ‘white and gold’ or ‘blue and black’
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/1af486db-deb1-44da-8d48-6ad5b5833713.webp
I see these exact pixels for the whole dress. So no black, and no blue like the original physical dress.
And no white. The only issue with the photo is that the black isn't captured as absolute black and it's a brown color.
Brown with a gold tint yes.
And blue so light it could be mistaken for white.
So you're saying if there were a blue and black snake that bites with deadly venom, and a white and gold snake that's harmless to people, you'd gain an evolutionary advantage from seeing the blue and black snake turn white and gold in the sun?
No, being able to see the same snake as the same colour by adjusting for ambient lighting conditions aids survival.
That isn’t what’s happening it’s a low res overexposed photo that lacks visual cues not real life.
It doesn't lack visual cues. I could tell it's overexposed and adjust for the lighting. You just can't see the cues, and that's the difference.
No, it does. That’s the point lol. Go read the Wikipedia thicko
I can see them with my own eyes right now. And the dress is black and blue, so I'm right. You just can't see them, but don't mistake your eyesight problems for objective truth.
lol ok Neo.
Unfortunately you're unable to see the (objective) pixel representation :(
In the larger version of the picture, you can see three areas of glare on the right. One from the window, one from the top of the table, and one from the floor. The backs of the items closer to the door, and the edge of the table, are darker than these glare areas. There's also a bright spot on the left. If you have good spatial intelligence, you can clearly tell the glare is coming from the sun based on how the light falls in the room.
The College of Optometrists came out and said it was ambigious. It's the point of the image dumbass. It's not about good spatial awareness. All you're demonstrating is lack of basic perception.
Ah yes, I lack perception because I can see more things than you do, and they lead me to correct conclusions about the state of the world. That makes complete sense.
And Usain Bolt runs so fast because he has weak legs, obviously.
You lack perception because your level of understanding is childish. I’d put you at 7/8. It’s really quite illuminating how thick some people can be.