It’s the question everyone is asking right now – what color is the dress? The debate rages on as some people proclaim, “white and gold!” while others adamantly declare, “blue and black!”

So what color is it? We asked Piedmont ophthalmologist Steven Shaw, M.D., to weigh in.

He says it depends. 

“The image is basically an optical illusion that is confusing your brain. In order to figure out what color an image is, your brain does a lot of visual processing.”

Some people filter out the blue color in the image and see white and gold; other people filter out the gold color in the image and see blue and black. It depends on how YOUR brain processes colors.

Dr. Shaw says, “The brain’s visual system evolves to determine what color something is regardless of the lighting.”

For instance, during sunrise or sunset, objects may look orange or pinkish, but the same objects look more white or blueish during full daylight hours. 

“Your brain determines the objects to be the same color no matter what the lighting is.”

He gives an example. If you ask anyone what color a banana is, they will say “yellow.” But if you shine a blue light on it, then ask them what color it is, they will likely still say “yellow” because the brain knows it’s a banana and that bananas are yellow. So your brain filters out the blue light from the flashlight. A computer, however, doesn’t know what a banana is or what color it is supposed to be, so it would recognize the banana as blue. 

“One of the other things your brain does when it determines what color something is, is it compares it to its surroundings. And it knows what color the surroundings are and applies it to the object. So if you took this dress and put it against a white background, your eye might perceive it differently than if you put it against a black background or a green background. And so your brain also processes the information around that image and ties that in to help determine what color the object is.”

Dr. Shaw tells us he’s been told the dress is actually blue and black, but what he sees is white and gold.

Special thanks to Piedmont ophthalmologist Steven Shaw, M.D., and Eye Consultants of Atlanta for their insight.  

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