LAWLzoR

Okay, so there are no riots, but there is debate over whether the famous "Black-Blue/White-Gold" dress is either black and blue or white and gold. I'm here to answer what its color combination is, and why there's even debate in the first place. (P.S. in case you're curious, I see it as black and blue no matter what. Which is strange because people can see it as white and gold or black and blue depending on the lighting).

1. The dress is most likely black and blue. Viewing the colors individually has even led those who thought it looked white and gold to agree that it's closer to blue than white and closer to black than gold.

2. But it's still strange that people don't see the dress the same way. Color is color, right? Well not exactly. Everyone's eyes has something to do with it. According to the sources I've read through (links below) it has to do mainly with color constancy. Color constancy is the ability to see the same color under different lights. If you every tried looking at a red barn in morning, afternoon, and evening, it'll remain red to the eye. If you were to take a picture and take those raw colors, however, they would be different hues. This has a role with the dress.

Not to mention that one's rods and cones in the eye also have a role. Cones are very very very very small bits of the eye on the retina that detect color and detail. Rods (around the same size) see shading, light, and general shapes and figures. How they pick up light ultimately decides what we see.

Because our biology hasn't changed since the stone age, our eyes were adapted to natural lighting (morning, afternoon, evening, night, etc.) and perhaps the lighting in the photo is at the point where people's minds are like "Oh, the blue is because of the natural lighting. These colors are blue and gold," or "Oh, the light colors is because of very bright light. This is actually blue and black." But very few people who have seen the dress are wrong or stupid or "aren't right". It's just how each person's eyes pick up the information and how our brain interprets it. There are other theories surrounding this, such as the number of cones we have that detect blue is less than the other two colors (red and green), but in all honesty this doesn't really matter. It's a dress that now no one will want to wear.

So don't feel bad for seeing it as white and gold. Your souls will be forgiven somehow.

Links:
http://time.com/3725528/dress-explai...black-science/
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http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science...s-color-dress/
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Read the legend here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/bu...s-in.html?_r=0