What colours do you see in this dress?

Is it blue and black or white and gold?

T his is #TheDress that broke the internet. People are debating whether they see a blue dress with black lace or a white one with gold lace.

It all started when Scottish musician Caitlin McNeill posted a picture of this dress on micro-blogging website Tumblr, captioned: “Is this dress white and gold, or blue and black”. Website Buzzfeed.com shared the picture and the debate began. Singer, Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) tweeted: “Hold on... So people actually see white and gold?”, while Taylor Swift (@ taylorswift13) wrote: “I don’t understand this odd dress debate and I feel like it’s a trick somehow... PS it’s OBVIOUSLY BLUE AND BLACK”.

Ellen DeGeneres wrote: “From this day on, the world will be divided into two people. Blue & black, or white & gold.” On Buzzfeed.com, Cedar Riener, associate professor of psychology at Randolph-Macon College, USA, explained. It’s about how your brain interprets the light coming into your eyes. He said: “This light, called luminance is always a combination of how much light is shining on an object and how much it reflects off of the object’s surface… In the case of the dress, some people are deciding that there is a fair amount of illumination on a blue and black (or less reflective) dress. Other people are deciding that it is less illumination on a white/gold dress (it is in shadow, but more reflective).”