could different people see the same color differently?

Question

We all know what the colors of the rainbow are. It's been nailed into our heads since childhood. Is there a possibility that everyone sees the colors differently? So if you can see through another person's eyes the colors you know are changed into other colors? could it be that we cannot communicate to each other what we see because we all identify it by the same name and it's impossible to describe a color without comparing it with other colors?

Answer 1

Very interesting queston! I sometimes wonder the same thing. How can we be so sure that we see the same colours? we all call the colours by names but we cannot be sure that in each of our minds we are seeing the same colour. It's just that we are taught the names of the colours according to the colour we see.
It can be a very interesting debate and research to do but infact it doesn't realy matter because we all understand each other even if we see the colours differently in our minds
.For example if you tell someone to go look for a blue book, they will go and look for the colour that they know is called blue (even if you both might not be seeing the same colour , you know the name of the colour that you are seeing is blue)
Therefore, you are still able to understand each other.

Answer 2

No, everyone's colors are the same, with one exception which I'll get to later. Everyone's cones (color sensing eye cells) are made of the same stuff. You have three types of cones that respond to three different frequency ranges and that is what gives you color vision. The wiring from your eyes across your optic nerves and into your brain are the same as they are in every human being. Want some proof? Ever hear of "warm colors" and "cool colors"? Advertisers and storefront owners like to use the color red because it catches the eye.

Now the exception is the color blind, which have fewer than the three different types of cones, either two, one, or zero (only rods) depending on the severity of the color blindness. Another exception is certain women who are born with a rare genetic anomaly that gives them four different types of cone cell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromat
Although it hasn't been proven that they exist.

Answer 3

Of course. Red is red, for the same reason 1 + 1 = 2. Because that is what you were taught. As long as everyone looks at an object and understands other peoples color description, what difference does it make.

For example, if you told the police that a car was green, would it matter what color they actually saw as long as they interpreted it as green?

Answer 4

Yes, take color blindness for example. People can definitely see the same color in different ways depending on their eye structure and health.

Answer 5

In theory, yes. No one has any way to prove that this is correct, though. There have been some studies, however, that say that we see the color of our eyes more vividly than someone with another eye color. So if I had blue eyes, I would see blue more vividly than a person with brown eyes. Very interesting debate, though. Good luck on your pondering!

Answer 6

1. We have no way of knowing how exactly another person perceives something.
2. The retina may grow slightly differently, so my balance of green, red, and blue cones in my retina may be slightly different from yours.
3. I knew a guy in high school who was red-green colorblind. No one knew about it until one day, we had to fill out forms on colored paper, and then place them in separated stacks at the front of the room. Brian put his in the wrong stacks, and didn't appear to know that he'd done it wrong.

Answer 7

For sure if you are daltonic cause daltonism is an inherited defect in perception of red and green( deuteranopia). Others cant discriminate blue and yellow hues(titranopia)and some others have color agnosia ,cant perceive colours even though the eyes are capable to distinguish them.

Answer 8

Since everyone has a slightly different eye color, everyone sees with slightly different pigments. A person with blue eyes ,for example, sees colors a little tiny lighter than a person with dark brown or black eyes.

Answer 9

Yes...cause everyone was raised differently with believing what color is what. Just like...at a red light...is the middle one yellow or orange?

Answer 10

It's a philosophical question that's quite interesting. What is "blue?" We can define it so many ways, but there's no way to determine that at this point. So we really have know way of knowing...