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==Scientific explanations==
==Scientific explanations==
[[Image:Duck-Rabbit illusion.jpg|thumb |right |The duck-rabbit, described in [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]]'s ''[[Philosophical Investigations]]'']]
[[Image:Duck-Rabbit illusion.jpg|thumb |right |The duck-rabbit, described in [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]]'s ''[[Philosophical Investigations]]'']]
[[Neuroscientist]]s [[Bevil Conway]] and [[Jay Neitz]] believe that the differences in opinions are a result of how the human brain [[Color vision|perceives colour]], and [[chromatic adaptation]]. A similar theory was expounded by the [[University of Liverpool]]'s Paul Knox.<ref name="Viewpoint">{{cite web |url=http://news.liv.ac.uk/2015/02/27/viewpoint-blue-black-white-gold/ |title=Viewpoint: Blue and black or white and gold? |publisher=News.liv.ac.uk |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref> Conway believes that it has a connection to how the brain processes the various hues of a [[daylight]] sky, noting that "your visual system is looking at this thing, and you're trying to discount the chromatic bias of the daylight axis", and that "people either discount the blue side, in which case they end up seeing white and gold, or discount the gold side, in which case they end up with blue and black."<ref name="wired-science">{{cite web |title=The Science of Why No One Agrees on the Color of This Dress |url=http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/ |website=Wired |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref> Neitz remarked that<blockquote>Our visual system is supposed to throw away information about the illuminant and extract information about the actual reflectance... but I've studied individual differences in colour vision for 30 years, and this is one of the biggest individual differences I've ever seen.<ref name="wired-science" /></blockquote> One hypothesis focuses on the naming of colours as a possible explanation. According to this view, the eye can differentiate between over 3 million colours but we only have names for 20 to 30 of them.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.beamled.com/info/blog/the-dress-the-big-colour-debate/ |title=The Dress: The Big Color Debate |publisher=Beamled.com |date=2 March 2015 |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref>
[[Neuroscientist]]s [[Bevil Conway]] and [[Jay Neitz]] believe that the differences in opinions are a result of how the human brain [[Color vision|perceives colour]], and [[chromatic adaptation]]. The first large-scale scientific study on #thedress documenting the extent to which the image is multistable and outlining possible neural accounts was published in "<ref name="Current Biology">{{cite web |title=Striking individual differences in color perception uncovered by ‘the dress’ photograph |url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215005357|accessdate=28 May 2015}}. Similar theories have been expounded by the [[University of Liverpool]]'s Paul Knox.<ref name="Viewpoint">{{cite web |url=http://news.liv.ac.uk/2015/02/27/viewpoint-blue-black-white-gold/ |title=Viewpoint: Blue and black or white and gold? |publisher=News.liv.ac.uk |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref> Conway believes that it has a connection to how the brain processes the various hues of a [[daylight]] sky, noting that "your visual system is looking at this thing, and you're trying to discount the chromatic bias of the daylight axis", and that "people either discount the blue side, in which case they end up seeing white and gold, or discount the gold side, in which case they end up with blue and black."<ref name="wired-science">{{cite web |title=The Science of Why No One Agrees on the Color of This Dress |url=http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/ |website=Wired |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref> Neitz remarked that<blockquote>Our visual system is supposed to throw away information about the illuminant and extract information about the actual reflectance... but I've studied individual differences in colour vision for 30 years, and this is one of the biggest individual differences I've ever seen.<ref name="wired-science" /></blockquote> One hypothesis focuses on the naming of colours as a possible explanation. According to this view, the eye can differentiate between over 3 million colours but we only have names for 20 to 30 of them.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.beamled.com/info/blog/the-dress-the-big-colour-debate/ |title=The Dress: The Big Color Debate |publisher=Beamled.com |date=2 March 2015 |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref>


Neuroscientist and psychologist Pascal Wallisch points out that while inherently ambiguous stimuli have been known to vision science for many years, this is the first such stimulus in the colour domain that was brought to the attention of science by social media. He attributes differential perceptions to differences in illumination and fabric priors, but also notes that the stimulus is highly unusual insofar as the perception of most people does not switch. If it does, it does so only on very long time scales, which is highly unusual for bistable stimuli, so perceptual learning might be at play.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/02/what_color_is_this_dress_a_scientist_explains_visual_ambiguity_and_color.html |title=An experts lesson from the dress |work=Slate |date=2 March 2015 |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref> In addition, he notes that discussions of this stimulus are not frivolous, as the stimulus is both of interest to science and a paradigmatic case of how different people can sincerely see the world differently, an acknowledgement of which is a precondition for world peace.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pensees.pascallisch.net/?p=1901 |title=Why discussing the dress is not frivolous |publisher=pascallisch.net |date=2 March 2015 |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref> The philosopher [[Barry C. Smith]] has invoked [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] and the [[rabbit–duck illusion]] by way of comparison.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31662317 |title=What would Wittgenstein say about that dress? |publisher=BBC |date=27 February 2015 |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref>
Neuroscientist and psychologist Pascal Wallisch points out that while inherently ambiguous stimuli have been known to vision science for many years, this is the first such stimulus in the colour domain that was brought to the attention of science by social media. He attributes differential perceptions to differences in illumination and fabric priors, but also notes that the stimulus is highly unusual insofar as the perception of most people does not switch. If it does, it does so only on very long time scales, which is highly unusual for bistable stimuli, so perceptual learning might be at play.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/02/what_color_is_this_dress_a_scientist_explains_visual_ambiguity_and_color.html |title=An experts lesson from the dress |work=Slate |date=2 March 2015 |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref> In addition, he notes that discussions of this stimulus are not frivolous, as the stimulus is both of interest to science and a paradigmatic case of how different people can sincerely see the world differently, an acknowledgement of which is a precondition for world peace.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pensees.pascallisch.net/?p=1901 |title=Why discussing the dress is not frivolous |publisher=pascallisch.net |date=2 March 2015 |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref> The philosopher [[Barry C. Smith]] has invoked [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] and the [[rabbit–duck illusion]] by way of comparison.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31662317 |title=What would Wittgenstein say about that dress? |publisher=BBC |date=27 February 2015 |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref>

Revision as of 01:30, 29 May 2015

The Dress
File:The Dress (viral phenomenon).png
The dress
DesignerRoman Originals[1]
MaterialLace[2]

The dress, also known as Dressgate[3] and associated with the hashtags #thedress, #whiteandgold, and #blackandblue,[4] is a viral photo and meme which became popular on the evening of 26 February 2015. The meme originated from a washed-out photograph of a dress posted on the social networking service Tumblr, and a dispute over whether the dress pictured was blue and black, or white and gold.[5] In the first week after the surfacing of the image alone, more than 10 million tweets mentioned the dress.

Although the dress colour was confirmed to be blue and black,[6][7] the image prompted discussions surrounding the matter across various platforms, with users discussing their opinions on the colour and why they perceived the dress as being a certain colour, while others discussed the triviality of the dispute to begin with. Members of the fields of neuroscience and colour vision provided scientific commentary on the optical illusion.[8] The dress itself, which was identified as a product of the retailer Roman Originals, experienced a major surge in sales as a result of the meme.[9] A 2015 study with 1,400 respondents found that 57% saw the dress as blue and black, 30% as white and gold and about 10% as blue and brown, while approximately 10% could switch between any of the colour combinations. Women and older people disproportionately saw the dress as white and gold. The scientist further found that if the dress was shown in artificial lighting almost all respondents saw the dress as white and black, while they saw it as white and gold if the background had blue lighting.[10]

Origin

About a week before the wedding of Scottish couple Grace and Keir Johnston, Grace's mother sent her a photograph of the dress she planned to wear to the wedding. The couple disagreed over the colour of the dress. They posted the image on Facebook, and their friends also disagreed over the colour; some saw it as white with gold lace while others saw it as blue with black lace.[11][12]

Caitlin McNeill is a friend of the Johnstons and a member of the Scottish folk music group Canach, which performed at the wedding on the island of Colonsay. Even after seeing that the dress was "obviously blue and black" in real life,[12] the musicians remained preoccupied by the photograph; they said they almost failed to make it on stage because they were caught up discussing the dress. On 26 February 2015, McNeill reposted the image on a Tumblr blog she operated and asked the same question to her followers, which led to further public discussion surrounding the image.[11][12]

Response

Later in the day, the image went viral worldwide across social media, including on Twitter, where users took to hashtags such as "#whiteandgold", "#blueandblack", and "#dressgate" to discuss their opinions on what the colour of the dress was, and theories surrounding their arguments. The photo also attracted discussion relating to the triviality of the matter as a whole; The Washington Post described the dispute as "[the] drama that divided a planet".[11][13][14] Some articles suggested that the dress could prompt an "existential crisis" over the nature of sight and reality, or that the debate could harm interpersonal relationships. One man was so intrigued by the dress that he decided the best option was to get his friend's opinion, a tattoo artist. He then got a tattoo of the dress with the hashtag BlueandBlack.[11][15]

Ben Fischer of the New York Business Journal noted that interest in the first BuzzFeed article about the dress exhibited vertical growth instead of the typical bell curve of a viral phenomenon, leading BuzzFeed to assign two editorial teams to generate additional articles about the dress in order to drive ad revenue,[16] and by 1 March, the original BuzzFeed article had received over 37 million hits.[17] The Dress was cited by CNN commentator Mel Robbins as a viral phenomenon having the requisite qualities of positivity bias incorporating "awe, laughter and amusement", and was compared to and contrasted with a video that went viral earlier that week of llamas loose on an Arizona roadway, and tributes paid to actor Leonard Nimoy after his death on 27 February.[18]

68% of BuzzFeed users polled responded that the dress was white and gold as of 1 March.[19] Some people have suggested that the dress changes colours on its own.[11] The dress attracted the attention of celebrities; Taylor Swift, Jaden Smith, Frankie Muniz, Demi Lovato, Mindy Kaling, and Justin Bieber announced that they see the dress as blue and black, while Anna Kendrick, B.J. Novak, Katy Perry, Senator Christopher Murphy, Julianne Moore, and Sarah Hyland saw it as white and gold.[20] Kim Kardashian tweeted that she sees it as white and gold, while her husband Kanye West sees it as blue and black. Lucy Hale, Phoebe Tonkin, and Katie Nolan saw different colour schemes at different times. Lady Gaga described the dress as "periwinkle and sand," while David Duchovny called it teal. Other celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and Ariana Grande, mentioned the dress on social media without assigning it a colour.[3][21][22][23][24][25] Politicians, government agencies and social media platforms of well-known brands also weighed in on the issue.[26]

Media outlets noted that the photo was overexposed and had poor white balance, causing its colours to be washed out, giving rise to the perception by some that the dress is white and gold rather than its actual colours.[11][27]

The dress itself was confirmed as being a royal blue "Lace Bodycon Dress" from the retailer Roman Originals; although available in three other colours (red, pink, and ivory, each with black lace), a white and gold version was not available. The day after McNeil's post, Roman Originals' website experienced a major surge in traffic; a representative of the retailer stated that "we sold out of the dress in the first 30 minutes of our business day and after restocking it, it's become phenomenal."[9] On 28 February, Roman announced that they would make a single white and gold dress for a Comic Relief charity auction.[28]

Scientific explanations

The duck-rabbit, described in Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations

Neuroscientists Bevil Conway and Jay Neitz believe that the differences in opinions are a result of how the human brain perceives colour, and chromatic adaptation. The first large-scale scientific study on #thedress documenting the extent to which the image is multistable and outlining possible neural accounts was published in "Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). Conway believes that it has a connection to how the brain processes the various hues of a daylight sky, noting that "your visual system is looking at this thing, and you're trying to discount the chromatic bias of the daylight axis", and that "people either discount the blue side, in which case they end up seeing white and gold, or discount the gold side, in which case they end up with blue and black."[8] Neitz remarked that

Our visual system is supposed to throw away information about the illuminant and extract information about the actual reflectance... but I've studied individual differences in colour vision for 30 years, and this is one of the biggest individual differences I've ever seen.[8]

One hypothesis focuses on the naming of colours as a possible explanation. According to this view, the eye can differentiate between over 3 million colours but we only have names for 20 to 30 of them.[29]

Neuroscientist and psychologist Pascal Wallisch points out that while inherently ambiguous stimuli have been known to vision science for many years, this is the first such stimulus in the colour domain that was brought to the attention of science by social media. He attributes differential perceptions to differences in illumination and fabric priors, but also notes that the stimulus is highly unusual insofar as the perception of most people does not switch. If it does, it does so only on very long time scales, which is highly unusual for bistable stimuli, so perceptual learning might be at play.[30] In addition, he notes that discussions of this stimulus are not frivolous, as the stimulus is both of interest to science and a paradigmatic case of how different people can sincerely see the world differently, an acknowledgement of which is a precondition for world peace.[31] The philosopher Barry C. Smith has invoked Ludwig Wittgenstein and the rabbit–duck illusion by way of comparison.[32]

The Journal of Vision, a scientific journal about vision research, announced on 12 March 2015 that a special issue about 'The Dress' will be published with the title 'A Dress Rehearsal for Vision Science'. The submission deadline is 1 July 2016, and scientific work has been ongoing.[33]

Legacy

On an episode of The Dr. Oz Show which aired in February of 2015, Dr. Mehmet Oz explained how the eye made people see the colours they saw.

Daniel Howland, a Texas piercer, got a tattoo of the dress in blue and black with the words "White and Gold?". According to Howland, "It's actually a great tattoo. It's just dumb." He also "thought it was funny that it upset a lot of people".[5][34][35]

The dress effectively captured the collective attention of online networks; in South Africa, the Salvation Army has attempted to re-direct some of this mass awareness towards the issue of domestic violence.[36]

SSI Shredding Systems Inc. based in Wilsonville, Oregon featured the dress in their weekly YouTube series Shred of the Week. The 1 April 2015 episode features a woman wearing the blue and black dress, which is shredded and in the process turns white and gold.[37]

See also

References

  1. ^ Spargo, Chris (27 February 2015). "The optical illusion dress that's divided the internet: Celebrities join fierce debate over whether this dress is white and gold or blue and black... so which colors do YOU see?". Daily Mail. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  2. ^ "Lace Detail Bodycon Dress". Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  3. ^ a b "#Dressgate: The white and gold dress making our mind work until it's black and blue". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  4. ^ Klassen, Anna (26 February 2015). "What Colors Are This Dress? White & Gold or Black & Blue? The Internet Is Going Insane Trying To Find Out – PHOTO". Bustle. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  5. ^ a b Moss, Caroline (2 March 2015). "A man has tattooed the color-changing dress on his leg". Business Insider. Business Insider Inc. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  6. ^ "The blue and black (or white and gold) dress: Actual colour, brand, and price details revealed". The Independent. 27 February 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  7. ^ "Optical illusion: Dress color debate goes global". BBC. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  8. ^ a b c "The Science of Why No One Agrees on the Color of This Dress". Wired. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  9. ^ a b "'The Dress' flying off racks following Internet sensation: 'We sold out in the first 30 minutes of our business day'". New York Daily News. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  10. ^ Ian Sample. "#TheDress: have researchers solved the mystery of its colour?". the Guardian.
  11. ^ a b c d e f "The inside story of the 'white dress, blue dress' drama that divided a planet". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  12. ^ a b c "The Dress Is Blue And Black, Says The Girl Who Saw It in Person". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  13. ^ "Color Bind: This Dress is White and Gold, Right?". Boston Globe. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  14. ^ "The Official Live Blog: Is This Dress Blue and Black or White and Gold?". Slate. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  15. ^ King, Kirsten (26 February 2015). "This Dress Is Ruining People's Lives". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  16. ^ Fischer, Ben (27 February 2015). "The Dress phenomenon didn't happen by accident. It took big money". New York Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  17. ^ Holderness, Cates (26 February 2015). "What Colors Are This Dress?". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  18. ^ Robbins, Mel (28 February 2015). "Why blue/black/white/gold dress went viral". CNN. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  19. ^ Holderness, Cates (26 February 2015). "What Colors Are This Dress?". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  20. ^ "What Colors Are This Dress? Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and a Bajillion Other Celebs Weigh In". MTV News.
  21. ^ Iyengar, Rishi. "The Dress That Broke the Internet, and the Woman Who Started It All". Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  22. ^ Jinks, Caitlin. "'I feel like it's a trick somehow': Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian join other celebrities in dress debate taking over the internet". Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  23. ^ Sanchez, Josh. "'What color is this dress' confused celebrities, too". Fansided.com. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  24. ^ Mahler, Jonathan. "A White and Gold Dress Overloads the Internet". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  25. ^ Iyengar, Rishi (26 February 2015). "Taylor Swift Says The Dress is Black and Blue". Time. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  26. ^ Jim Dalrymple II. "Politicians, Police, And Brands Have Weighed in On "The Dress"". Buzzfeed.com. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  27. ^ "Why that dress looks white and gold: It's overexposed". Mashable. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  28. ^ "'The Dress' returns in special edition gold and white version for Comic Relief charity auction". The Independent. 10 March 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  29. ^ "The Dress: The Big Color Debate". Beamled.com. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  30. ^ "An experts lesson from the dress". Slate. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  31. ^ "Why discussing the dress is not frivolous". pascallisch.net. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  32. ^ "What would Wittgenstein say about that dress?". BBC. 27 February 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  33. ^ "Journal of Vision - Special Issue on The Dress". 12 March 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  34. ^ Durando, Jessica (2 March 2015). "Man tattoos #thedress on his leg". USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  35. ^ Kooser, Amanda (2 March 2015). "Tattoo celebrates blue/black/white/gold dress meme". CNET. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  36. ^ "Salvation Army uses The Dress in ad targeting violence against women". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 6 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  37. ^ "SSI's Shred of the Week: The Dress". 1 April 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
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