# Are colors the same for everyone?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 31, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674 "2005-01-31T21:52:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@2\_click\_twiddle\_flare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_click_twiddle_flare)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/1 "2005-01-31T21:52:16Z")
Is it possible, what you might know as the color blue, is my green? when we look at the color which is named “blue” such as the sky, i see it as you see green, your purple is my orange etc… and we would never be able to tell how others see colors, because if you show me a book of colors and tell me to pick out blue, i will still pick out what you would pick out as blue, because that is the name for the color which i see.
Im not talking about inability to define colors,such as color blindness, but our eyes/brains perceiving completely different color appearance.
possible or not?
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/2 "2005-01-31T22:21:19Z")
Unless someone has given you the wrong names for the colors, I would seriously doubt you would mistake blue for green (or whatever).
I have a color perception deficiency (used to be color blind in the old days :)).
Mine is the more common red-green type. This means that certain shades of red and green do not register correctly with me. Example: I used to have a green Volkswagen Beetle (it was that dark forest green). Now that color I could easily identify. The interior was a lighter shade of green. It looked gray to me.
I’m sure that if I had put something that was actually gray against the interior, I would have been able to see the difference.
There’s also a rarer blue-yellow type of deficiency, but I’ve never known anyone whose had it.
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### Author:  [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/3 "2005-01-31T22:40:27Z")
> [@2 click twiddle flare](#):
>
> Is it possible, what you might know as the color blue, is my green? when we look at the color which is named “blue” such as the sky, i see it as you see green, your purple is my orange etc… and we would never be able to tell how others see colors, because if you show me a book of colors and tell me to pick out blue, i will still pick out what you would pick out as blue, because that is the name for the color which i see.
> Im not talking about inability to define colors,such as color blindness, but our eyes/brains perceiving completely different color appearance.
>
> possible or not?
Your thought is clear enough and it is one I wondered about as a child. It actually _is_ connected with (partial) color-blindness.
If someone cannot separate two colors, such as red/green (or certain shades thereof) the what are they seeing? By definition it is unlikely to be what “everyone” perceives as either red or green. Therefore “everyone” (the majority of folks with no measurable color-blindness) does not necessarily have the same “feeling” to a particular shade.
But, short of being able to enter another’s mind, how would we ever know? I can’t think of any test that would establish it one way or another.
I can tell you what kind of “feeling” that blue, green, red, et al give to me and what they symbolize. But that doesn’t really help. We are all culturally conditioned to one degree or another about what certain shades “should” mean. Just as, as you said, what the names in our shared language say they, “should” be called, but perhaps with much less consensus. So what would it prove if you said “yes, yes, yes” to each one of my statements? Or “no” to one or several? Probably nothing!
* * *
True Blue Jack
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### Author:  [@2\_click\_twiddle\_flare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_click_twiddle_flare)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2005, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/4 "2005-01-31T22:47:20Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> Unless someone has given you the wrong names for the colors, I would seriously doubt you would mistake blue for green (or whatever).
>
> I have a color perception deficiency (used to be color blind in the old days :)).
>
> Mine is the more common red-green type. This means that certain shades of red and green do not register correctly with me. Example: I used to have a green Volkswagen Beetle (it was that dark forest green). Now that color I could easily identify. The interior was a lighter shade of green. It looked gray to me.
>
> I’m sure that if I had put something that was actually gray against the interior, I would have been able to see the difference.
>
> There’s also a rarer blue-yellow type of deficiency, but I’ve never known anyone whose had it.
The person would not mistake green for blue, if you showed them a list of colors, they would edintify them correctly, but say the light spectrum which we term blue, looks to someone, like your green. Everyone will still be able to identify all the same colors, because we know that is what the color is specifcally, and what it is called. therefore we would never be able to tell how someone sees the color, because to them the color blue is the color of the sky etc, but they may see it as YOU see green, or brown, or yellow…
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### Author:  [@klintypooh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/klintypooh)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/5 "2005-01-31T22:49:22Z")
> [@True Blue Jack](#):
>
> Your thought is clear enough and it is one I wondered about as a child. It actually _is_ connected with (partial) color-blindness.
>
> If someone cannot separate two colors, such as red/green (or certain shades thereof) the what are they seeing? By definition it is unlikely to be what “everyone” perceives as either red or green. Therefore “everyone” (the majority of folks with no measurable color-blindness) does not necessarily have the same “feeling” to a particular shade.
>
> But, short of being able to enter another’s mind, how would we ever know? I can’t think of any test that would establish it one way or another.
>
> I can tell you what kind of “feeling” that blue, green, red, et al give to me and what they symbolize. But that doesn’t really help. We are all culturally conditioned to one degree or another about what certain shades “should” mean. Just as, as you said, what the names in our shared language say they, “should” be called, but perhaps with much less consensus. So what would it prove if you said “yes, yes, yes” to each one of my statements? Or “no” to one or several? Probably nothing!
>
> * * *
>
> True Blue Jack
This may be obvious, but is that where your username comes from?
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### Author:  [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/6 "2005-01-31T22:54:28Z")
It’s logically possible. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to test whether this actually occurs, as you pointed out.
This has come up before:
> **[Do we see in different colors???](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=12622)**
>
> Could everyone in the world see in different colors??? Yeah, we all look at the sky and say it’s blue, but maybe blue looks different to every single person, but they just call it blue because that’s what they’ve come to know it as. We all say the...
> **[Do all people see colors the same?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=14470)**
>
> Well what I mean is that if my green is really your brown but you call it green because that is what you were taught. You are calling what shade I call brown green and what you see as my green I see as your brown but they all have the right names...
> **[Do we all see colour the same way?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=24498)**
>
> After seeing another thread relating to describing colour to a blind person (you’ll have to excuse my spelling of colour - it’s correct where I’m from),a question jolted loose which I’ve long pondered… to whit; do we all perceive colours the same...
> **[2 Really Dumb Questins Concerning Colors](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=32816)**
>
> Do we all see colors the same way? For instance, to me, red is red. But is it possible that someone else could look at red and see what I would percieve as blue? Or even more troubling . … a color that I can’t even imagine? If not, how do we really...
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/7 "2005-01-31T23:02:26Z")
It’s possible that certain people “see” some colors on the periphery as green, others as blue.
But if you see a pure blue, or a pure green, everyone whose brain and retina can differentiate between the two will either see a blue or a green. The definition of seeing blue or green is what receptors are activated in the eye and in the brain: indeed, pretty soon we _will_ be able to
> [@](#):
>
> enter another’s mind
.
However, the question of how certain colors are “experienced” is meaningless: as long as given a certain objective situation, the same information is disseminated, how it is really “experienced” is unimportant.
The exception, of course, is if the receiver not only experiences the state differently, but also acts upon that information differently.
For instance, if we were to hook up two people, whose molecules were exactly the same, to a machine and shone a pure blue light into their brains, I would bet money that we would see that their brains interpret the information in the exact same way. Strike one against the existence of different subjective states, or qualia.
Furthermore, if we were to give them a task based on their interpretation of this light, I’d bet we would find that, given the exact same molecular setup, they would perform the tasks exactly the same. Strike two.
Any evidence to the contrary should be interpreted as the effects of quantum mechanics causing otherwise exactly the same machines to act in different ways rather than as evidence for subjective states.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/8 "2005-01-31T23:06:17Z")
Of course, if we came up with experimental evidence that people in otherwise indentical molecular states respond differently in a way that _cannot_ be explained by quantum mechanics, it would be evidence for either a physical layer as yet undiscovered, or for the existence of subjective states.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2005, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/9 "2005-01-31T23:27:44Z")
It’s possible that we all experience our worlds entirely differently from one another, in terms of the internal mapping - what you perceive as the colour turquoise might be the same sensation my brain produces when I taste vanilla custard and what I perceive as the colour turquoise might be the same sensation your brain produces when you run your hand across silk - there’s simply no way to objectively compare my internal experience of the world with yours, because the mapping of the external stimuli to the internal experiences is the exact same mapping that we use in reverse to describe the internal experiences to other people.
As long as my brain consistently produces sensation X in response to stimulus Y, it doesn’t matter whether your brain would be able to make sense of it; that Y has always looked like X to me is simply part of reality and my brain is totally conditioned to work with it.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/10 "2005-01-31T23:33:48Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> For instance, if we were to hook up two people, whose molecules were exactly the same, to a machine and shone a pure blue light into their brains, I would bet money that we would see that their brains interpret the information in the exact same way. Strike one against the existence of different subjective states, or qualia.
Except that our brains are not only constructed of molecules that are not totally identical, but they are actually _wired differently_ - each human brain is a one-off self-built computer; sure, there are some basic principles that are in operation as regards gross schematic, but the actual layout of the individual neurons and their interconnections is built-to-order each time - sort of like reverse-engineering or Searle’s Chinese Rooms - the outputs might be comparable and the nuts-and-bolts of the technology might be the same, but in between, there’s plenty of room for different modes of operation.
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### Author:  [@AndyPolley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyPolley)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/11 "2005-01-31T23:34:20Z")
Hi there, **Mr. Blue Sky** (or is that Mr. Yellow Sky?) Nice to meet you. I possess that rarer form of Blue/yellow color deficiency that you mentioned. I also possess the red/green deficiency which makes me a pretty bad candidate for dressing myself and apparently a one in a million case study.
I’m told that because my color perception is so far off from what is known about the subject, that I probably _do_ see colors differently than they are “normally” perceived. It’s an educated guess by my eye doctors & an old science teacher of mine, but it is quite impossible to prove. I do get a kick out of telling people that my “blue” sky might be orange though, but the reality probably isn’t that extreme or exciting.
Also from these tests (I can’t tell you how many Ishihara circle tests I’ve had to look at) I was given the impression that there is indeed a “standard” way to perceive colors.
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### Author:  [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/12 "2005-01-31T23:58:11Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#):
>
> It’s logically possible. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to test whether this actually occurs, as you pointed out.
Why not? Why wouldn’t I be able to say, “what color is this?” while pointing to red on the color wheel and have someone respond by picking out a colored pencil that matches their perception?
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### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/13 "2005-02-01T00:09:58Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#):
>
> Why not? Why wouldn’t I be able to say, “what color is this?” while pointing to red on the color wheel and have someone respond by picking out a colored pencil that matches their perception?
You and the subject would both point at the same pencil, and you would both state that this color is “red”. But it would tell nothing about how each of you are experiencing internally this “red” color.
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2005, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/14 "2005-02-01T00:16:57Z")
I’ve wondered the same thing since I was a child too. I don’t know how it would be possible to ever be sure that two people, both looking at the same colour, are actually perceiving the same colour.
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### Author:  [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/15 "2005-02-01T00:25:07Z")
Originally posted by **Clairobscur**
> [@](#):
>
> You and the subject would both point at the same pencil, and you would both state that this color is “red”. But it would tell nothing about how each of you are experiencing internally this “red” color.
**Clairobscur**
True, but this would tell us that one person does not “see” red while the other “sees” yellow as the OP speculated. It’s not a matter of one persons color wheel being out of registration with the other’s.
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### Author:  [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/16 "2005-02-01T00:33:34Z")
> [@jimpatro](#):
>
> True, but this would tell us that one person does not “see” red while the other “sees” yellow as the OP speculated. It’s not a matter of one persons color wheel being out of registration with the other’s.
Yes, that’s the point of the OP.
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### Author:  [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/17 "2005-02-01T02:29:58Z")
> [@Cunctator](#):
>
> I’ve wondered the same thing since I was a child too. I don’t know how it would be possible to ever be sure that two people, both looking at the same colour, are actually perceiving the same colour.
I hadn’t considered it, until the question was brought up in some SF story that I read years ago as a sort of throwaway mention. Specifically, even the telepaths in that universe were unable to determine the truth of this question, since a telepath would necessarily be filtering the other person’s perceptions through their own.
Wish I could remember where I read it…
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### Author:  [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2005, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/18 "2005-02-01T03:16:27Z")
I know exactly what you mean **2 click twiddle flare** , and have thought about it a great deal. I have come to these conclusions: 1.)There is no way to find out, and 2.) It doesn’t matter. Not exactly the best response to fight ignorance with, but thats all I got.
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### Author:  [@2\_click\_twiddle\_flare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_click_twiddle_flare)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/19 "2005-02-01T04:57:25Z")
> [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](#):
>
> I know exactly what you mean **2 click twiddle flare** , and have thought about it a great deal. I have come to these conclusions: 1.)There is no way to find out, and 2.) It doesn’t matter. Not exactly the best response to fight ignorance with, but thats all I got.
Hahaha, good call 🙂
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### Author:  [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2005, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colors-the-same-for-everyone/287674/20 "2005-02-01T05:36:31Z")
> [@AndyPolley](#):
>
> ```
> I possess that rarer form of Blue/yellow color deficiency that you mentioned. I also possess the red/green deficiency which makes me a pretty bad candidate for dressing myself and apparently a one in a million case study.
>
> ```
I don’t want to turn this into an unwilling “Ask the doper” thread, but I’m immediately curious! Care to author a willing “Ask the” perhaps?
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