Do colors look different to other people?

Question

E.G. my blue is your orange

Answer 1

Colors themselves are defined by wavelengths of light and are thus exactly the same for different people, but our perception or "experience" of different colors could very well be different. As evidenece of this, check out synaesthesia, which is what happens when a person ascribes things from one sense with another (e.g. "this tastes blue" or "this note sounds yellow") http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaesthesia or the effects of psychadelic mushrooms on the user. These demonstrate that different people, or the same person under different circumstances, can experience colors in different ways.

Your question is very interesting, as it is a gateway into trying to figure out the human condition. There is a quote in a film by Jean-luc Godard - "Two or three things I know about her" asking the same question, something like "What if blue was called green?" - namely that we just ascribed the names "blue" and "green" to our experience of each color, even though each individual person's experience can be very different.

The painter Miro also dealt with our subjective experiences of color by painting huge canvases with just a single color, in order to evoke our "blue" or "orange" response.

Answer 2

I doubt it. The same cells that translate light wavelengths for our brains are found in all our eyes, and our brains develop in the same sorts of ways. Even if they do come out looking different, it doesn't matter; similar values are assigned to the same real color regardless of it's particular appearance to the individual.

It's interesting to note that some rare languages do not even have words for colors, instead relying on saying that something looks like something else (like what we might do if we're feeling poetic). This brings the whole existance of colors like blue and orange into question, as well as emphasizing the irrelevance of this question.

Answer 3

I used to get really stoned and think about stuff like this. But how would we know if we saw colors differently? If I show you a picture of a green square, you'll say it's a green square even if the green you see is what I see as purple, because you learned that color as green.

Answer 4

thats a good question. i always wondered about that too. not blue and orange, but like the same shade of blue or orange.

Answer 5

Actually sometimes yes. Some people are color blind to certain colors and don't know it (example: some people can't tell the difference between red and green). But the color would be like a gray color, it wouldn't look like a differnet color.

Answer 6

no because there are certain things that we all agree on, like the signal lights, sky being blue etc. good question though

Answer 7

thats funny i always asked myself the same question!!

Answer 8

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Go Against The Flow!

Answer 9

Only if your color blind!

Answer 10

you're ******** retarded!