Team Blue or Team White? Dress debate breaks the internet

[ghazi52]

L-R: The original dress from British retailer Roman Originals and the picture Caitlin McNeill posted on Tumblr which was then picked up by BuzzFeed.- Photo courtesy: BuzzFeed


On Thursday, Caitlin McNeill from Scotland posted a picture of a dress with lace detailing on Tumblr, coupled with the caption: "Guys please help me — is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Me and my friends can’t agree and we are freaking out." One insignificant detail was enough to send the virtual world into a frenzy and has us all booking eye appointments.

"What happened was two of my close friends were actually getting married and the mother of the bride took a photo of the dress to send to her daughter. When my friend showed the dress to her fiancee, they disagreed on the color," shares McNeill from Scotland.

- Photo courtesy: Twitter
It feels like the whole world is in on playing a prank on us, trying to make us doubt our eyes and brain. It's blue and black. It's so obviously blue and black. But how do you not second guess yourself when Julianne Moore thinks it's white and gold?

The Internet is divided. Team Blue and Black is convinced they're right:


Whereas Team White and Gold also refuses to admit it's anything but:

Even Kim and Kanye are at odds with each other.

This debate could be the new Monopoly - tearing apart families and friends.

We wonder if all this is is a marketing ploy. If so, it's pure genius. British clothing retailer Roman Originals sells the dress in question. We went on their website, added in a Blue colour filter in the Dresses section and guess what showed up?

 

[Indian Patriot]

People who are calling it blue and black needs to get their eyes checked. It is white and gold.
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Just kidding here. That thing is blue and black. I don't know why would anyone even confuse it for white and gold. I don't know who Juliane Moore but unless they changed the name of colours that dress CANNOT be white and gold. It is either an internet hoax or a prank that has gone viral.

 

[ghazi52]

(Photo: Tumblr screenshot)

69COMMENTEMAIL
Someone is sleeping on the couch tonight.

The BIG question transversing social media is, simply, what colors are this dress?

And people cannot seem to agree so much so that couples and friends are in heated debate.

Some are inclined to go with gold and white whereas others are seeing black and blue. And they are quite passionate about their decisions.

I see as gold and white.......................

 

[Gabriel92]

I don't understand why people are debating,almost fighting for that ?

 

[ghazi52]

Because everybody sees differently.
In my house ..............
Two see as blue and black.
Two see as blue white and gold.
Myself white and gold.................................

 

[The Great One]

Holy Mother!
The first time my eyes focused on it, it looked white and gold. But just the next moment blue and black. WTF


Edit: I've been trying to make it look w&g again for 5 mins but to no avail. B&B it is.

 

[ghazi52]

Holy Mother!
The first time my eyes focused on it, it looked white and gold. But just the next moment blue and black. WTF


Edit: I've been trying to make it look w&g again for 5 mins but to no avail. B&B it is.

It happen to my son..
But I still get white and gold....................

 

[Indian Patriot]

How can anybody mistake blue for white and black for gold?

 

[The Great One]

Even Reddit hasn't figured this out yet.
Are you Team White/Gold or Team Blue/Black? : AskWomen
What color is the dress? Why do some people see blue and black and some people see gold and white when looking at a single image of a dress? : askscience

 

[ghazi52]

I am team .. white and gold.

 

[Anubis]

At first it was white and gold for everyone in my family....then it changed for me to blue and black...my family still sees it as white and gold!

 

[ghazi52]

That Dress riddle: trick of the light?
May 15 2015

By FIONA MACRAE

.The picture of the dress that has caused the sensation.
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.”