Philosophical or Scientific - the power of suggestion?

[Diamond_Hawk]

This is an interesting concept - how much can we be influenced by the power of suggestion?

If you are on social media you have probably seen the following image:



The debate rages on and on about whether this is a white and gold dress or a blue and black dress.

Everyone MUST be crazy, I thought - it is obviously white and gold.

"no so fast..." I have been told, as several of my friends tell me they see a blue and black dress.

So, I went to the tried and true source of de-bunking internet myths - snopes.com. Here is what they had to say:

On 25 February 2015, a striped dress that appeared to be white and gold to some (but blue and black to others) began to circulate on the social blogging network Tumblr. As the popularity of the image increased, the debate intensified. According to an informal poll, roughly a quarter of people believed the dress was blue and black, while three quarters believed it was clearly white and gold:

On 26 February 2015, a Twitter user claimed that the photograph was actually a "sight test" that indicated any given viewer's emotional state. The user did not, however, explain why such a "test" was being administered or what the ultimate purpose (aside from retweets) might be.

While the converse (colors potentially influencing emotions) has been studied and posited, we turned up no evidence that the theory was proposed or tested in the opposite direction. (It is possible that the Twitter user in question misinterpreted the widespread belief colors affect emotions, or that the individual was simply taking advantage of a viral phenomenon.)

Fortunately for the internet, there is actually an answer to this conundrum. The highlighted bit of the darker top stripe read as hex code #806D48 through an eyedropper tool — clearly a gold-based tone. However, a lighter portion of the sleeve (described by many as white) was hex code #A0A1B9, a heavily blue-tinged color. Ultimately, it's far less likely that the image is a mood diagnostic than a mild prank involving image manipulation software and the power of suggestion.

So - the answer appears to not really be an answer - is the claim here that the power of suggestion (and software) can cause people to see the blue in a dress where little or none exists?

Interesting point, you may say, but how does this relate to RockyTalky?

I am curious how this same technique or controversy might play-out in the examination of diamonds?
Is it possible that a slight blue tinge to some people is an obviously blue diamond to others? (I think we know this to be the case)
When pictures are sent to consumers, are there potential tricks of the computer monitor, and photographic shadings to influence the color (or non-color) of the diamonds, or do they appear the same in real life?

We are continually in discussion of how light plays in mono vs. stereo vision and how diamond color and dispersion is interpreted - could the power of suggestion be as noticeable in a picture (or real-life) with a diamond as it is in this social media phenomenon?

Just curious to see if anyone else is as intrigued by this as I am.

 

[KobiD]

If I squint image blurs I can interpret the colours as black and blue. I'd say quite a few people are either seeing what they want to see, or have poor vision (which they may/may not be aware of). There are also variations in monitors/viewing devices, as well as device drivers.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

All I can say is, what drives me perhaps the most crazy on the forum in regard to photos is when people say, "I want to see your J-K-L-M, etc. diamonds to see how I like the color", and all you see posted are what appear to be 50 white D color diamonds.....which are not D in real life. Some things you just have to see with your own eyes!

 

[Karl_K]

so you really want the answer to why it appears different colors?
It would not happen if the image was printed on a color printer then shown to different people.
hint: the same reason I tell people not to judge gemstone colors using a monitor.

 

[Medical]

so you really want the answer to why it appears different colors?
It would not happen if the image was printed on a color printer then shown to different people.
hint: the same reason I tell people not to judge gemstone colors using a monitor.

Clever, haha. Also, it appears blue and gold to me. Is that weird?

There are a ton of medical articles on suggestion, some done ok and many designed pretty poorly. Overall, it certainly plays some role in how our mind processes things- from pain (experiments suggest it's modulated by mood and how much pain you expect), to what foods we like as kids (if you tell a kid they liked a food the last time they ate it, even though they actually hated it last time, they're much more likely to enjoy that food for the rest of their life- think about that..). Don't even get me started on how horrible memory accuracy is..

Suggestion is powerful stuff. (This is my field and I love it haha).

 

[diamondseeker2006]

This was the best article I have seen yet explaining picture of the blue dress:

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/

 

[Hospatogi]

This dress clearly looks white and gold to me. However I just asked my husband and he sees aqua and brown haha. Granted his eye sight is not very good

 

[Niel]

so you really want the answer to why it appears different colors?
It would not happen if the image was printed on a color printer then shown to different people.
hint: the same reason I tell people not to judge gemstone colors using a monitor.

Its actually not the monitor. It has to do with the lighting you view the dress in and your rods and cones. I actually already had a threadavoht this over in hangout, someone posted something about the scientific reason there

 

[Karl_K]

so you really want the answer to why it appears different colors?
It would not happen if the image was printed on a color printer then shown to different people.
hint: the same reason I tell people not to judge gemstone colors using a monitor.

Its actually not the monitor. It has to do with the lighting you view the dress in and your rods and cones. I actually already had a threadavoht this over in hangout, someone posted something about the scientific reason there

The color temperature of the monitor will greatly swing it one way or the other.
Go into your monitors settings and change it between 5000, 6500, and 9300.
Here is the same color under the 3 temps.

 

[Niel]

so you really want the answer to why it appears different colors?
It would not happen if the image was printed on a color printer then shown to different people.
hint: the same reason I tell people not to judge gemstone colors using a monitor.

Its actually not the monitor. It has to do with the lighting you view the dress in and your rods and cones. I actually already had a threadavoht this over in hangout, someone posted something about the scientific reason there

The color temperature of the monitor will greatly swing it one way or the other.
Go into your monitors settings and change it between 5000, 6500, and 9300.
Here is the same color under the 3 temps.

No one is saying monitors aren't different but many are getting results when two people are looking at the same pic on the same monitor

http://gizmodo.com/what-the-****-is-wrong-with-your-eyes-a-dress-explaine-1688364883