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

so what happens if I see gold? Does that mean I become rich?

@Matt it means you're probably staring at white objects for entirely too long and your brain can no longer white balance correctly :P

so I should tell my boss I'm over worked.. got it!

while the interpretation(s) of what is going on is not wrong, this particular image has major curve manipulation. Compare the sampled colors with the photo of the "actual" blue and black dress going around. The question "is this white and gold" is part of the distraction also. It leads people to accept the light blue as "white under lighting."

I'm not convinced this is an actual illusion as much as it is a gullibility test to see how far something inaccurate can spread on social media. )

@DA01 I originally saw it as gold and white, only after seeing an article showing it in actual gold and white did I perceive the blue and black correctly.

Is it a test for colorblindness?

There is no black in this image at all.

@DA01 might be interested in CogSci's take: cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/9405/…

@Ryan I'm siding with TidalWave's comment...there is an element of colorblindness to this. I still argue that this has less to do with a true illusion and more to do with social-media influence (which, as you probably know, can distort any topic to absurd levels) For me to be convinced that this is a true illusion, I'd need to see some real numbers. What percentage of people see the wrong color. Mostly male? Female?

@DA01 couldn't tell you numbers beyond 3 of my female friends having seen white and gold.

It's white and gold. Really. We can argue about "bluish-white" or the color of the light having an effect but gold is not black, and I literally, genuinely have no idea how anyone is seeing black in that image.

I see "white and gold" when given the binary choice. There is, straight up, no black in this image. The white is accepted because it is fed into the question. The dress is objectively "periwinkle and brown". The actual blue dress is a red herring.

The dress in real life is blue and black. Not sure if you mean periwinkle and brown in this photo or in reality. @Yorik

the real dress has nothing to do with it and is a red herring.

My partner showed me this picture over breakfast and asked me: so, what colour do YOU see in this dress, mr designer? My answer was: hmmm, beige and lilac? He was not happy.

@cockypup: did he say "what colors do you see" or "is this white and gold or blue and black?"

@Yorik: he said "what colours do you see?" expecting me to fall into one of the two groups. I spoiled the rest of the story. He had to start with: "anyways, never mind you, most of the world things it is either..."

Ah the human white balance algorithm strikes again, on top of the camera. Just wait till you discover the sharpening algorithms flaw, that will keep you amused for about a year.

To be fair, I just looked at this on my laptop monitor and saw nothing even resembling gold, only black or dark brown/gray. I then moved the image to my other monitor and it was clearly gold.

I can't (try as I might) see anything other than blue and gold (ditto in the 3 xkcd images). But then the idea that things like white "look blue in shadow" is mystifying to me - surely things look darker in shadow? Maybe my colour perception is horribly distorted somehow.

@FrancisDavey Think about how snow looks in shadow at 9am. It's that glowy blue.

@LaurenIpsum - I'll pay attention. It isn't something I've ever noticed before. It's dark now so I can't find any daylight shadows to check (and there's no snow either), but I'll see if I can see this effect.

@FrancisDavey Google "photo of snow in shadow" and you'll immediately see what I'm describing.

to me it looks blue with "gold" lace (although actually the "gold" looks more like brown)

This question has a false premise: "correct colors of Black and Blue". The correct colours are (approximately) gold/brown and light blue. You can inspect the pixels in an image editor to confirm this. The color of the original dress is irrelevant, as someone else already pointed out. If the photo had been an accurate representation of the original object, then this debate wouldn't even exist.