The Dress: The Day the Internet Split in Two
"Is it white and gold or blue and black? In February 2015, a single photo of a dress divided the entire world and taught everyone something about how perception works"
What Happened?
A Scottish wedding guest posted a photo of a dress to Tumblr asking friends to settle a disagreement about its color. The post reached Buzzfeed, which posted it at 6pm EST. By midnight it had 10 million views. Celebrities including Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Kim Kardashian weighed in. CNN ran live coverage. Within 24 hours, the #TheDress hashtag had generated over 10 million tweets. Scientists published papers explaining the phenomenon: the dress exploited an ambiguity in human color constancy, the perceptual mechanism that allows us to see consistent colors under different lighting conditions. The dress was blue and black.
Why People Are Talking About This
Is it white and gold or blue and black? In February 2015, a single photo of a dress divided the entire world and taught everyone something about how perception works
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How We Got Here
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