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A fascinating battle of colors: Why is this dress going global?
In 2015, a photo of a dress went viral, sparking a heated debate among netizens. Is the color of this mysterious dress blue and black or white and gold? This phenomenon has not only sparked widespread discussion, but also revealed the differences in human color perception and has become a topic of research in neuroscience and vision science.
Origin of the incident
The colour battle began in February 2015, when Grace's mother, Cecilia Bleasdale, photographed the colours of the 1950s at a designer outlet in Chester, England, ahead of the wedding of Grace and Keir Johnston of the Isle of Colonsay, Scotland. A photo of a dress. The original intention was to wear this blue and black lace dress to her wedding, but she never imagined that this photo would trigger a global color debate.
After Bleasdale sent the photo to her daughter Grace, Grace told her mother that what she saw in the photo was a white and gold dress.
Grace posted the photo on Facebook, and her friends' reactions were surprisingly consistent, with many expressing different opinions on the color of the dress, sparking a week-long heated discussion.
Social media reaction
When this photo was reposted by Caitlin McNeill to Tumblr, it became a hot topic on the Internet. Initially, Cates Holderness, a former social media manager at BuzzFeed, thought the post was a joke, but when she checked, she found it had attracted more than 5,000 hits.
Holderness helped launch a survey on color that quickly gained a lot of attention and ultimately set BuzzFeed's traffic records.
The debate quickly spread to Twitter, with users using hashtags such as "#whiteandgold" and "#blueandblack" to express their opinions on the dress. The escalating number of tweets peaked almost overnight, reaching 4.4 million within 24 hours.
Popular Culture Influence
As the debate continues, a host of celebrities have spoken out, with posts about the dress appearing on social media from musicians to actors. Celebrities' differing opinions on the color only added fuel to the debate.
Famous singer Taylor Swift tweeted that she saw blue and black, and said she was "confused and scared", which instantly received a lot of reposts and likes.
This color fight not only attracted public attention, but also attracted extensive media coverage and became a cultural phenomenon. Many brands and companies have jumped into the discussion and capitalized on the craze with creative campaigns.
Scientific Explanation
Scientists have conducted in-depth research into why such a disagreement occurs. Neuroscientists Bevil Conway and Jay Neitz have suggested that this phenomenon may stem from the different ways in which the human brain perceives color. They believe that people may ignore the influence of light sources when reacting, resulting in incorrect judgment of color.
Different background lighting affects people's perception of color, and some people have more difficulty correcting color perception.
According to the survey, different opinions on the color of the dress even vary according to biological gender and age, showing that people have extremely high individual differences in color perception. This reminds the scientific community to examine the complexity of human perception.
Lasting Impact
Not only was it a social media sensation, the dress and the story behind it made it onto several lists of internet memes of the year. For Bleasdale and her partner Paul Jinks, the incident also brought some regrets, saying they did not enjoy the attention they deserved.
To this day, this phenomenon remains a reminder of the profound gap that may exist between what we visually know and reality.
Finally, we can't help but wonder, what deep aspects of human nature are revealed by this color battle?
