Do Different People See Colors Differently?

Question

could one person see the sky as "blue" but actually be seeing it as green?
or could another person see the clouds as "white" but really seeing it as blue?
We give different colors different names but are they the same for everyone?
if they are then how can we prove it?

Answer 1

That's an excellent question; by which, I mean that nobody really knows the answer.

It's possible to test whether a person's eyes respond to different colors -- for instance, to test for color blindness -- but there's no way to know if what a person actually "sees" is the same color as anyone else. We just all agree to call a certain set of wavelengths "green," for instance.

In fact, we can't know if what your brain perceives as "color" is really a color. Maybe your brain sees different colors as different kinds of vibration, for instance; and "vibration" is a different quality altogether, which you've learned is called "vibration" but you perceive some other way.

Even more bizarre is something called "synesthesia." There are people who have "crossed circuits," as it were, in the part of their brains that processes sensory input. They "hear" colors or "smell" sounds.

You may not realize it, but you actually see (at least partially) with your ears. The labyrinthine complex is the part of your inner ear that gives you a sense of balance. Your brain gives much more "weight" to this sensory input than your vision. So much so that when you get dizzy, say from spinning around, the room looks like it's still spinning even though your eyes tell you that it's not.

You may want to read "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks, to get some mind-blowing case studies on how strange the world can be for some people with sensory and/or perceptual disorders.

Answer 2

Do People See Colors Differently

Answer 3

Simple answer: yes. Under optimal conditions, 20 people could be exposed to the same patch of color which has a measurable, quantifiable value along the electromagnetic spectrum. However, due to variances in the visual system of each person (clarity of cornea, clarity of lens, clarity of the vitreous and aqueous humors, number of rods and cones in the retina, etc.) as well as 20 different ways to interpret the color, each person will see something slightly different. Try this: gather a group of friends--the more the better--at a paint store. Seek out a commercial product, any product will do, that has a STRONG singular color characteristic. Give everyone a good look at it for a while and then, one by one, send each person to the paint sample location and have them pick what they think is the same color from the samples provided. Don't show each other the samples until everyone has chosen. Then compare. Did everyone choose the same color? You may even want to compare it to the product you're trying to match and see who came the closest! This experiment may not produce much variance with a BASIC color like "fire engine red," but when you try it with colors that are harder to define--like "sea foam green" or "french vanilla"--you'll probably discover that everyone's perception of that color is slightly different.

Answer 4

If you accept that our senses are as they are because of the way our bodies and brains work, there is no reason to think that two different people who have the same structures for these faculties perceive things differently.

Of course, there can be differences between the way people are built, though -- some people even reportedly "hear" some things as colors. I suspect this is because there is some kind of mismatch in their brains where signals from their ears are also reaching the parts of their brains that process visual signals.

Answer 5

White and black, I would assume to be standardized throughout everyone. I myself have also been curious to whether people see colors differently. One thing to keep in mind would be that all "blended" colors then would have to be relative to the two colors they always are. Say purple. Even if someone's red is your yellow, and their blue is your red, making what they see your "orange" it would still be what they know as "purple".

I suppose even white and black could be transversed as long as your scale of light and dark shades was also switched. Meaning if white and black were switched then baby blue and navy blue would be the same for two different people if that happened.

I'm not exactly sure if any of this made sense though. :D

Answer 6

I've wondered that same question in the past. Or maybe not that people see different colors but that the intensity or brightness is percieved differently. And maybe that is why people have certain colors that they favor more than others?

Answer 7

People see colors differently...that's a fact. But how differently, we don't yet know. For example, maybe it's just different shades of blue, not something as drastic as seeing blue as purple.
There is currently no way to determine how colors are seen aside from minor brain scan tests...but these have not proven very effective in solving the mystery so far.
Our eyes may be structured similarly, but the actual dist. and measurements of our eyes are different, therefore implying different color wavelengths entering our eyes, causing us to see things differently.

Answer 8

A rose is a rose. Just as we know that dogs see in black and white, the cones in a person's eyes decide what color is perceived. First, with black and white, it is the collection or lack thereof that makes what we see. Light, being part of a spectra, what you see is that part of the spectra that is reflected away from the object. Just as none of us can see inferred, we see the same thing. Now, the only difference is slight shifts from the cones of the eye. Blue is blue, green is green. Since green needs yellow, blue cannot be seen by the human eye as green. Now the exception is someone who is color blind, but that is a defect in not having certain cones in the eyes.

Answer 9

some inherited traits cause color blindedness (usually in males sense its a sex trait gene) that cause colors to appear another color for someone with normal genes and another for a person with the gene trait. for expale, green maybe blue and blue maybe green. however, i recall that its only a few colors that r different, like ive never heard of blue being white for a person with the gene trait.

As for different colors different names, others may perceive colors as a different hue of the base color. an example of this is that im not quite sure wether i have brown hair, reddish hair, or red brown hair.

Answer 10

Ya, I was wondering that too. My sister was wearing a dress one day and somehow we got into this argument about what color it was. I know, kind of stupid, but it was kind of interesting too. She said it was coral, but I didn't see any orange in it, it just looked like a light pink. Anyway, I think we all see the same colors, we just have different ideas about how much of each color makes it up. With primary and secondary colors, there aren't really any questions. It's when you get into teal and burgundy, etc., that it's hard to decide. Wow, I thought about that way to much, but I hope you get what I'm saying.