Organizational reflections after #dressgate

Published on March 2, 2015 within Blog

The dress is perceived by some (24% according to dn.se 2015-02-27) as blue / black and by others (76%) as gold / white. The picture has angered many people. Slightly unlikely discussions are carried out in social media, in the usual order, hardships quickly hail and persuasion campaigns flow. Like it would be possible to convince someone that the sky is actually green. Many simply cannot be reconciled with the idea that a person describes something as dark blue (“and black!?”) When it is so obviously white and gold.

As is so often the case with viral internet phenomena, especially the reactions are very interesting to analyze. In this case, we get a completely uncomplicated and very concrete example of a) that we actually can experience the same thing in completely different ways, without anyone being wrong, and b) how difficult we as humans are to accept that it can actually be so.

Some laugh at it all and say “think you can experience something so different” while others cannot let go of the thought: “which of us is wrong? Obviously, some of us have vision errors! What color is the damned dress !?”

What I take from this spectacle is a strong belief that:

1. A situation is rarely black or white, usually it is somewhere in the grayscale - and sometimes it can obviously be both black and white at the same time.
2. What is obvious to me is not as obvious to anyone else. Not because I understood and the other didn't - but because we see things differently.
3. For us people, it is frustrating that sometimes we do not agree with each other even though the situation is completely investigated.
4. It does not always matter what is true - it is what you experience that is of importance. Facts do not lie, but to follow facts unreflected can still be wrong.

With that said: Whoever took the photo has revealed that dress actually IS blue / black. The 5th reflection is that 76% may actually be wrong - with reservations for reflections 1 and 2.

Update: after it was revealed what color the dress is in reality, suddenly many more people thought it was blue. Reflection no. 6 is thus - parallel to no. 4 - that many still prefer to think what is right, rather than to think what they think in the inside. The last phenomenon, I think, is related to the common desire to not want to stand out as abnormal. At least not in the negative sense. A bit exciting, however, that it also results in an anonymous survey.