The key facts
- A viral photo of a car sparked a debate: men more often called it white, women — a 'Tiffany shade'
- The US National Eye Institute confirms: even people without impairments perceive colors differently
- Color blindness cannot be diagnosed from a single photo — special tests exist for that
The photo that split social media
A photograph of a car in an unusual color spread across social media and turned into an improvised 'color blindness test', reports Life.ru. Participants in the debate are asked to choose one of the options: light greenish-blue, white, gray or beige. The answers split noticeably along gender lines: most men called the car simply white, while women more often spoke of a 'Tiffany shade' — a light turquoise color. Users began attributing the difference in answers to color blindness, and the discussion quickly escalated into mutual recriminations.
What experts say about color perception
The claim that men 'can't tell colors apart' has a real basis: color vision deficiencies are indeed more common in men. At the same time, as the US National Eye Institute explains, even people without any impairments may perceive the same colors slightly differently — meaning a divergence in answers is not by itself a sign of a disorder. For actual diagnosis of color blindness, special tests are used, in particular tables with colored dots inside which numbers or shapes are hidden.
Can you trust the 'car test'
There is no basis for judging color vision from a single photo of a car: lighting, the screen and camera settings all affect the result, and the normal variation in perception between people explains the dispute without any diagnosis. Still, as the outlet notes, if the difference in color perception is noticeable on a regular basis, that is nonetheless a reason to think it over and take a professional test.
