• Question: how do you see the same colour as me

    Asked by Jessica on 19 May 2025.
    • Photo: Ruth Pegington

      Ruth Pegington answered on 19 May 2025:

      The colour you see is due to the light coming into your eyes and being detected the cells in your retina and then your brain interprets this signal.
      I’m not sure we can know for sure that we see exactly the same colour, but if there are differences in the cells in the retina we might see slightly different colours and call it the same name. People that are colour blind (different distribution of rods and cones- cells in the retina) do see colours differently.
      Hope that makes sense?
      I looked for a good explanation and thought this was a good one: hope it helps!
      https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/brain/seeing-color

    • Photo: Ioanna Bezirtzoglou

      Ioanna Bezirtzoglou answered on 19 May 2025:

      Hi Jessica, that is a great question – we actually have no evidence that we are all seeing the exact same colour, or rather interpreting what we see as the exact same colour. But we, as a society. early on decide what colours ‘should’ look like, even if you might be able to see a slightly different colour variant than someone else when you are looking at the same ‘red’

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