VIRAL: What Color is This Dress?

Eye test! What color is this dress?

This viral photo has been making it’s waves across social media. So what color is it? Some people are interpreting it as white and gold, whereas others are seeing black and blue. While some are seeing both.

The image first appeared on Tumbler. A user asked Tumbler users to help prove what color the dress is to solve the mystery. The internet soon was flooded with the image and people claiming the dress was either black and blue or white and gold.

Soon after, explanations for the major difference in colors started circling. So why are some people seeing the dress as gold and white, and others are seeing blue and black?

Basically our retinas are made up of cones and rods. The cones interpret colors and the rods interpret shades. With the combination of light, your eyes form the colors that you see everyday.

According to the test, if you see Blue and Black: “Your retina’s cones are more high functioning, and this results in your eyes doing subtractive mixing.”

If you are seeing White and Gold: “your eyes don’t work well in dim light so our retinas rods see white, and this makes them less light sensitive, causing additive mixing, (that of green and red), to make gold.”

Here’s the full explanation from @andyrexford on Twitter:

So what color do you see?