The dress (viral phenomenon)

The Dress

The original picture of "the dress"
Designer Roman Originals[1]
Material Lace[2]

The Dress, also known as Dressgate[3] and associated with the hashtags #thedress, #whiteandgold, and #blackandblue,[4] is a photo that became a viral meme on 26 February 2015. The phenomenon revealed differences in human colour perception which have been the subject of serious ongoing scientific investigation in neuroscience and vision science, with a number of papers published in peer-reviewed science journals.[5][6][7]

The meme originated from a washed-out photograph of a dress posted on the social networking service Tumblr, and a dispute over whether the dress pictured was blue and black, or white and gold.[8] In the first week after the surfacing of the image alone, more than 10 million tweets mentioned the dress. Although the actual colour of the dress was confirmed to be blue and black,[9][10] the image prompted discussions surrounding the matter across various platforms, with users discussing their opinions on the colour and why they perceived the dress as being a certain colour, while some dismissed the issue as trivial.[11]

At the same time, members of the scientific community began to investigate the photo for fresh insights into human colour vision.[12] A 2015 scientific study of 1,400 respondents found that 57% saw the dress as blue and black; 30% saw it as white and gold; 10% saw it as blue and brown; and 10% could switch between any of the colour combinations.[5] A small number saw it as blue and gold. Women and older people disproportionately saw the dress as white and gold. The researchers further found that if the dress was shown in artificial yellow-coloured lighting almost all respondents saw the dress as blue and black, while they saw it as white and gold if the simulated lighting had a blue bias.[13]

The dress itself, which was identified as a product of the retailer Roman Originals, experienced a major surge in sales as a result of the meme.[14]

Origin

About a week before the wedding of Scottish couple Grace and Keir Johnston of Colonsay, Grace's mother, Cecilia Bleasdale, and Cecilia's partner, Paul Jinks, took a photograph of the dress she planned to wear to the wedding. Cecilia, Grace, Paul, and Keir then disagreed over the colour of the dress in the photograph. The bride posted the image on Facebook, and her friends also disagreed over the colour; some saw it as white with gold lace while others saw it as blue with black lace.[15][16] For a period of weeks, the debate became well known in Colonsay, a small island community.[17]

On the day of the wedding, Ceitlin McNeill, a friend of the bride and groom and a member of the Scottish folk music group Canach, performed with her band at the wedding on Colonsay. Even after seeing that the dress was "obviously blue and black" in real life,[16] the musicians remained preoccupied by the photograph; they said they almost failed to make it on stage because they were caught up discussing the dress. A few days later, on 26 February, McNeill reposted the image on her Tumblr blog and asked the same question to her followers, which led to further public discussion surrounding the image.[15][16]

Response

Internet conversations on 26 February had been dominated by commentary on the live television feed of official attempts to recapture two llamas, which had escaped their handlers after a visit to a retirement home in Phoenix, Arizona, and then run through the city's streets. After the several-hour-long chase ended, Cates Holderness, who runs the Tumblr page for Buzzfeed at the site's New York offices, noted a message from McNeill asking for the site's help in resolving the colour dispute. At the time she dismissed it, but then checked the page near the end of her workday and saw that it had received around 5,000 notes in that time, which she said "is insanely viral [on Tumblr]." Tom Christ, Tumblr's director of data, said at its peak the page was getting 14,000 views a second (or 840,000 views per minute), well over the normal rates for content on the site. By later that night, the number of total notes had increased tenfold.[18]

Holderness showed the picture to other members of the site's social media team, who immediately began arguing about the dress's colours among themselves. After creating a simple poll for users of the site, she left work and took the subway back to her Brooklyn home. When she got off the train and checked her phone, it was overwhelmed by the messages on various sites. "I couldn't open Twitter because it kept crashing. I thought somebody had died, maybe. I didn't know what was going on." Later in the evening the page set a new record at BuzzFeed for concurrent visitors, which would reach 673,000 at its peak.[18][19]

The most interesting thing to me, is that it traveled. It went from New York media circle-jerk Twitter to international. And you could see it in my Twitter notifications because people started having conversations in, like, Spanish and Portuguese and then Japanese and Chinese and Thai and Arabic. It was amazing to watch this move from a local thing to, like, a massive international phenomenon.[18]

– Cates Holderness

The image went viral worldwide across social media. On Twitter, users created the hashtags "#whiteandgold", "#blueandblack", and "#dressgate" to discuss their opinions on what the colour of the dress was, and theories surrounding their arguments. The number of tweets about the dress increased throughout the night; at 6:36 pm. EST, when the first increase in the number of tweets about the dress occurred, there were five thousand tweets per minute the hashtag "#TheDress", increasing to 11,000 tweets per minute with the hashtag by 8:31 pm. EST.[18] The photo also attracted discussion relating to the triviality of the matter as a whole; The Washington Post described the dispute as "[the] drama that divided a planet."[15][20][21] Some articles suggested that the dress could prompt an "existential crisis" over the nature of sight and reality, or that the debate could harm interpersonal relationships.[15][22]

That evening, Wellesley College neuroscientist Bevil Conway gave some comments on the phenomenon to Wired reporter Adam Rogers. Before they hung up, Rogers warned him, "your tomorrow will not be the same." Conway thought the reporter was exaggerating, saying, "I didn't appreciate the full extent of what was about to happen. Not even close." Rogers's story eventually got 32.8 million unique visitors. Meanwhile, when Conway woke up the next morning, his inbox had so many emails about the dress that at first, he thought his email had been hacked, until he saw that the bulk were interview requests from major media organisations. "I did 10 interviews and had to have a colleague take my class that day," said Conway.[18]

Celebrities with larger Twitter followings began to weigh in overnight. Taylor Swift's tweet – which described how while she saw it as blue and black, the whole thing left her "confused and scared" – was retweeted 111,134 times and liked 154,188 times.[18] Jaden Smith, Frankie Muniz, Demi Lovato, Mindy Kaling, and Justin Bieber agreed that the dress was blue and black, while Anna Kendrick, B. J. Novak, Katy Perry, US Senator Christopher Murphy, Julianne Moore, and Sarah Hyland saw it as white and gold.[23] Kim Kardashian tweeted that she saw it as white and gold, while her husband Kanye West saw it as blue and black. Lucy Hale, Phoebe Tonkin, and Katie Nolan saw different colour schemes at different times. Lady Gaga described the dress as "periwinkle and sand," while David Duchovny called it teal. Other celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and Ariana Grande, mentioned the dress on social media without mentioning specific colours.[3][24][25][26][27][28] Politicians, government agencies and social media platforms of well-known brands also weighed in on the issue.[29] Ultimately, the dress was the subject of 4.4 million tweets within 24 hours.[18]

In the UK, where the phenomenon had begun, Ian Johnson, creative manager for dress manufacturer Roman Originals, learned of the controversy from his Facebook news feed that morning. "I was pretty gobsmacked. I just laughed and told the wife that I'd better get to work," he said.[18]

We've seen other stories go viral, but the sheer diversity of outlets that picked it up and were talking about it was unlike anything we had ever seen. Everyone from QVC to Warner Bros. to local public libraries to Red Cross affiliates were all posting links to it on their social accounts. That kind of diversity in who's sharing a story pretty much never happens…and certainly never to that degree. Even in the year since and with a million different people trying to replicate it, nothing has come close.[18]

Brandon Silverman, CEO of social media monitoring site CrowdTangle

Businesses that had nothing to do with the dress, or even the clothing industry, devoted social media attention to the phenomenon. Adobe retweeted another Twitter user who had used some of the company's apps to isolate the dress's colours. "We jumped in the conversation and thought, Let's see what happens," recalled Karen Do, the company's senior manager for social media. Jenna Bromberg, senior digital brand manager for Pizza Hut, saw the dress as white and gold and quickly sent out a tweet with a picture of pizza noting that it, too, was the same colours. Do called it "literally a tweet heard around the world."[18]

Ben Fischer of the New York Business Journal reported that interest in the first BuzzFeed article about the dress exhibited vertical growth instead of the typical bell curve of a viral phenomenon, leading BuzzFeed to assign two editorial teams to generate additional articles about the dress to drive ad revenue,[30] and by 1 March, the original BuzzFeed article had received over 37 million views.[31] The dress was cited by CNN commentator Mel Robbins as a viral phenomenon having the requisite qualities of positivity bias incorporating "awe, laughter and amusement," and was compared to and contrasted with the llama chase earlier that day, as well as to tributes paid to actor Leonard Nimoy after his death the following day.[32]

By 1 March, over two-thirds of BuzzFeed users polled responded that the dress was white and gold.[33] Some people have suggested that the dress changes colours on its own.[15] Media outlets noted that the photo was overexposed and had poor white balance, causing its colours to be washed out, giving rise to the perception by some that the dress is white and gold rather than its actual colours.[15][34]

On 3 March, Ellen DeGeneres had Grace, Keir, Ceitlin, and Cecelia as guests on her show. After revealing that she sees the dress as white and gold, DeGeneres presented each of them with gifts of underwear patterned after the dress but combining both color schemes, and show sponsors also gave the Johnstons a gift of $10,000 and a honeymoon trip to Granada, as they had left their honeymoon early to participate in the show.[35] That night, Andy Cohen criticized the gifts on Watch What Happens: Live, calling the dress "lame and pointless."

The dress itself was confirmed as being a royal blue "Lace Bodycon Dress" from the retailer Roman Originals; although available in three other colours (red, pink, and ivory, each with black lace), a white and gold version was not available. The day after McNeil's post, Roman Originals' website experienced a major surge in traffic; a representative of the retailer stated that "we sold out of the dress in the first 30 minutes of our business day and after restocking it, it's become phenomenal."[14] On 28 February, Roman announced that they would make a single white and gold dress for a Comic Relief charity auction.[36]

Scientific explanations

Neuroscientists Bevil Conway and Jay Neitz believe that the differences in opinions are a result of how the human brain perceives colour, and chromatic adaptation. Similar theories have been expounded by the University of Liverpool's Paul Knox.[37] Conway believes that it has a connection to how the brain processes the various hues of a daylight sky, noting that "your visual system is looking at this thing, and you're trying to discount the chromatic bias of the daylight axis. ... [P]eople either discount the blue side, in which case they end up seeing white and gold, or discount the gold side, in which case they end up with blue and black."[12] Neitz remarked:

Our visual system is supposed to throw away information about the illuminant and extract information about the actual reflectance... but I've studied individual differences in colour vision for 30 years, and this is one of the biggest individual differences I've ever seen.[12]

One hypothesis focuses on the naming of colours as a possible explanation. According to this view, the eye can differentiate between over 3 million colours but we only have names for 20 to 30 of them.[38]

The duck-rabbit, described in Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations

Neuroscientist and psychologist Pascal Wallisch states that while inherently ambiguous stimuli have been known to vision science for many years, this is the first such stimulus in the colour domain that was brought to the attention of science by social media. He attributes differential perceptions to differences in illumination and fabric priors, but also notes that the stimulus is highly unusual insofar as the perception of most people does not switch. If it does, it does so only on very long time scales, which is highly unusual for bistable stimuli, so perceptual learning might be at play.[39] In addition, he says that discussions of this stimulus are not frivolous, as the stimulus is both of interest to science and a paradigmatic case of how different people can sincerely see the world differently, an acknowledgement of which is a precondition for world peace.[40] The philosopher Barry C. Smith compared the phenomenon with Ludwig Wittgenstein and the rabbit–duck illusion.[41]

The Journal of Vision, a scientific journal about vision research, announced in March 2015 that a special issue about the dress will be published with the title A Dress Rehearsal for Vision Science. The issue is due to be submitted by 1 July 2016, and scientific work is ongoing.[42] The first large-scale scientific study on the dress was published in Current Biology three months after the image went viral.[5][6][7]

Legacy

The dress effectively captured the collective attention of online networks; in South Africa, the Salvation Army has attempted to re-direct some of this mass awareness towards the issue of domestic violence.[43] Daniel Howland, a Texas piercer, got a tattoo of the dress in blue and black with the words "White and Gold?". Howland said, "It's actually a great tattoo. It's just dumb," and "thought it was funny that it upset a lot of people."[8][44][45]

As the original authors of the photograph that sparked the viral phenomenon, Bleasdale and Jinks later expressed frustration and regret over being "completely left out from the story", including their lack of control over the story, the omission of their role in the discovery, and the commercial use of the photo.[19]

The dress was included on multiple year-end lists of notable internet memes in 2015.[46][47] It was also the subject of a short story by erotica writer Chuck Tingle.[48]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Spargo, Chris (27 February 2015). "The optical illusion dress that's divided the internet: Celebrities join fierce debate over whether this dress is white and gold or blue and black... so which colors do YOU see?". Daily Mail. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  2. ↑ "Lace Detail Bodycon Dress". Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  3. 1 2 "#Dressgate: The white and gold dress making our mind work until it's black and blue". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  4. ↑ Klassen, Anna (26 February 2015). "What Colors Are This Dress? White & Gold or Black & Blue? The Internet Is Going Insane Trying To Find Out – PHOTO". Bustle. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 Rosa Lafer-Sousa; Katherine L. Hermann; Bevil R. Conway (29 June 2015). "Striking individual differences in color perception uncovered by 'the dress' photograph". Current Biology 25 (13): R545–R546. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.04.053. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  6. 1 2 Karl R. Gegenfurtner; Marina Bloj; Matteo Toscani (29 June 2015). "The many colours of 'the dress'". Current Biology 25 (13): R543–R544. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.04.043. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  7. 1 2 Alissa D. Winkler; Lothar Spillmann; John S. Werner; Michael A. Webster (29 June 2015). "Asymmetries in blue–yellow color perception and in the color of 'the dress'". Current Biology 25 (13): R547–R548. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.05.004. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  8. 1 2 Moss, Caroline (2 March 2015). "A man has tattooed the color-changing dress on his leg". Business Insider. Business Insider Inc. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  9. ↑ "The blue and black (or white and gold) dress: Actual colour, brand, and price details revealed". The Independent. 27 February 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  10. ↑ "Optical illusion: Dress color debate goes global". BBC. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  11. ↑ "Why do we care about the colour of the dress?". The Guardian. 27 February 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 "The Science of Why No One Agrees on the Color of This Dress". Wired. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  13. ↑ Ian Sample. "#TheDress: have researchers solved the mystery of its colour?". The Guardian.
  14. 1 2 "'The Dress' flying off racks following Internet sensation: 'We sold out in the first 30 minutes of our business day'". Daily News. New York. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The inside story of the 'white dress, blue dress' drama that divided a planet". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  16. 1 2 3 "The Dress Is Blue And Black, Says The Girl Who Saw It in Person". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  17. ↑ "Ellen DeGeneres Settles the Great Dress Debate Once and For All!". Entertainment Tonight. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Warzel, Charlie (26 February 2015). "2/26: The Oral History". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  19. 1 2 "#TheDress couple: 'we were completely left out from the story'". BBC News. 1 January 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  20. ↑ "Color Bind: This Dress is White and Gold, Right?". Boston Globe. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  21. ↑ "The Official Live Blog: Is This Dress Blue and Black or White and Gold?". Slate. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  22. ↑ King, Kirsten (26 February 2015). "This Dress Is Ruining People's Lives". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  23. ↑ "What Colors Are This Dress? Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and a Bajillion Other Celebs Weigh In". MTV News.
  24. ↑ Iyengar, Rishi. "The Dress That Broke the Internet, and the Woman Who Started It All". Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  25. ↑ Jinks, Caitlin. "'I feel like it's a trick somehow': Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian join other celebrities in dress debate taking over the internet". Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  26. ↑ Sanchez, Josh. "'What color is this dress' confused celebrities, too". Fansided.com. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  27. ↑ Mahler, Jonathan. "A White and Gold Dress Overloads the Internet". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  28. ↑ Iyengar, Rishi (26 February 2015). "Taylor Swift Says The Dress is Black and Blue". Time. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  29. ↑ Jim Dalrymple II. "Politicians, Police, And Brands Have Weighed in On "The Dress"". Buzzfeed.com. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  30. ↑ Fischer, Ben (27 February 2015). "The Dress phenomenon didn't happen by accident. It took big money.". New York Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  31. ↑ Holderness, Cates (26 February 2015). "What Colors Are This Dress?". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  32. ↑ Robbins, Mel (28 February 2015). "Why blue/black/white/gold dress went viral". CNN. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  33. ↑ Holderness, Cates (26 February 2015). "What Colors Are This Dress?". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  34. ↑ "Why that dress looks white and gold: It's overexposed". Mashable. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  35. ↑ "Ellen DeGeneres Settles the Great Dress Debate Once and For All!". Entertainment Tonight. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  36. ↑ "'The Dress' returns in special edition gold and white version for Comic Relief charity auction". The Independent. 10 March 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  37. ↑ "Viewpoint: Blue and black or white and gold?". News.liv.ac.uk. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  38. ↑ "The Dress: The Big Color Debate". Beamled.com. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  39. ↑ "An experts lesson from the dress". Slate. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  40. ↑ "Why discussing the dress is not frivolous". pascallisch.net. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  41. ↑ "What would Wittgenstein say about that dress?". BBC. 27 February 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  42. ↑ "Journal of Vision – Special Issue on The Dress". 12 March 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  43. ↑ "Salvation Army uses The Dress in ad targeting violence against women". CBC News. 6 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  44. ↑ Durando, Jessica (2 March 2015). "Man tattoos #thedress on his leg". USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  45. ↑ Kooser, Amanda (2 March 2015). "Tattoo celebrates blue/black/white/gold dress meme". CNET. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  46. ↑ "The 15 Best Memes of 2015". Entertainment Weekly's EW.com. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  47. ↑ "24 Memes That Took The Internet By Storm in 2015". MTV News. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  48. ↑ Nichols, James Michael. "'Pounded By The Gay Color Changing Dress' Released By Chuck Tingle". Huffington Post. Retrieved April 25, 2015.

External links

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