Do we all see colour the same - is my red your blue?

Answer 1

No, I do not believe we see colours the same.

1. I spent many years painting with another artist. We painted the same outdoor scenes with very different results in the colour department - and he always argued that I got the colour all wrong. Pigments in paint refract light a bit differently than colours in nature - his oranges were always too garish for me, and I used too much purple according to him. We would argue over which colour to use for a particular thing, and never agreed - quite obviously we saw yellow differently.

2. A friend of mine restores paintings, and does a good job most of the time, except this once he just could not please the customer. She called me to fix it, not knowing I knew him. She was right - there was a spot in the sky that looked pink and did not belong. He swore he couldn't see it and actually argued with her - but there it was... I fixed it, and told her that I had always suspected that men see colours differently than women, and she was happy with that.

3. I spend most of the week selling artist's materials, and men invariably choose different colours for their palette than women do. Specifically, they choose different reds and yellows - not all, but most men choose more muted, earthy or warm yellows and orange-reds, whereas women tend more toward bright and cool yellows, and cool purple-reds. It's not only a matter of what pleases them, but which colours they choose to mix to achieve their final results.

Not very scientific, perhaps, but based on years of personal observation.

Answer 2

I am red/green blind along with 20% of the male population - I see them as a similar colour. This produces problems when they are mixed with other colours - blue being the big example. I get some 'matches' which others think appaling. Mauve and purple are much the same colour to me.
BUT some of the 'matches' others see as OK I find way adrift.
RoyS.

Answer 3

I think there must be a general acceptance that red is red, what your interpretation of red actually is is irrelevant, as long as you see it as red and agree that that colour is red then that's fine!

Colour blind people maybe have a difference of opinion, I think they generally see certain colours as shades of grey or something.

Answer 4

No. The phenomenon of color is a result of the manner in which it is absorbed or reflected. This is because colors are wavelengths operating at frequencies visible to the human eye. Therefore, one could not interpret the color blue as another person interprets red. The only time my red would be your blue, is if one of us has assigned the wrong word to the right / wrong color.

Answer 5

Yes we normally see the colours the same, providing you are not colour blind which is a medical condition.
An optician will have a set of cards which they use to determine wheather or not you are colour blind, the cards have many disks of many colours printed on them, hidden within these coloured spots are numbers and symbols and so on, what you see is what determines your ability to see colours correctly.

Answer 6

We see all colors the same it is the way our brain interprets the reflection of light on objects. Because we are the same species we all perceive it the same. If you want to test this statement hand different people color cards and ask them to tell you what color the card is, if you hand (what you perceive as) a yellow card and all the subjects on your study answer that the card is in fact yellow then you can come to the conclusion that we all perceive color the same. (except for color blind people, they will see some colors as Gray)

Answer 7

Oh my GOSH! I never thought I would hear "the color theory" from anyone else. LOL Let me explain...

My friend's husand has come up with "the color theory." He thinks that we all see colors differently but we are told that green is green. For example, when I see "green" it may actually be purple to me, but I was always told it was green so that is what I call it.

He was so proud of that, too! I think it can totally be true. That's why people favor different colors, ya know. Someone may really love the color orange, and you think ugh, orange! How could anyone like that? Maybe it's because their really seeing blue.

Excellent question!

Answer 8

some people cant see colours properly but its still the same colour you see

Answer 9

We'll never know. What appears to be red to you could be like your blue to me. As long as we are consistent, it matters not. Color blind people have some difficulties, of course. I assume that neither of us has that condition.

Answer 10

The "Colour theory" is utter bolony - I used to think that way until I learned a bit of physics.