How do we know that we all see the same colours?

[onlystephen]

If person sees colour "A" as colour "B", but calls it colour "A" because that is what everyone else calls it, How would they know that they are seeing the wrong colour? Could we all be seeing colours slightly or significantly different to others? Does it matter since the person calls colour "A", colour "A", even though they see colour "B"?

[karenmac60]

They do those colour blindness tests with the dots. My ex was colour blind and had real problems with some of the tests. I also remember hearing that men have less cones on their retinas than women and can't distinguish as many shades - which is why when your mrs shows you 3 different colours of cream paint and they all look the same to you, they are - but not to her.

[society]

Most men are usually colour blind... that's what I was taught in biology

[cls14]

You may wish to get a better biology teacher Society as there is no evidence at all to suggest that. Unless she was making a joke and you didn't pick up on it.......

[karenmac60]

I think your teacher probably meant it's mostly men who are colourblind - in that it affects men as it's on the Y chromosome. You don't tend to get colourblind women. But most men have normal colour vision apart from the shades thing.

[sophie_1003]

But colour blindness isn't exactly the thing that's being asked about (I don't think) colour blindness is where you can't distinguish between, for example red and green whereas what the OP is asking is if we see colours all the same. For example, I know the sky is blue and the grass is green because those are the names of the colours I've always been told those things are, but what if someone sees blue the way I see green but because they've always been told the sky is blue that's the colour they call it. Or maybe the sky to me is a differnt shade of blue as to another person?

[grasscarp]

I think we dont know. We dont know if we see the same colours. We dont know if we taste the same tastes etc. However as most of the genes we have are shared with the rest of the population the likelihood is that we are all experiencing fairly similar things. Do you ever wonder if you are the only person alive and that everyone else is a figment of your imagination.

[society]

thanks Karenmac60! that's what I meant. sorry I didn't say what I mean. It came out all wrong. (-:

[sophie_1003]

ooh grasscarp, that's a pretty scary thought! As a child I often felt like I wasn't really real, more like I was in a dream.

[Androcles]

I don't think you would know if what you see is the same as other people, and if you "see" green and I "see" blue, but we have both always been taught that the colour of the object we both see is called "red", what would it matter?

I do remember my brother as a toddler on a bus, on seeing his first West Indian, stared at him for a long time before announcing very loudly "Mum, look at that blue man!"

[grasscarp]

I asked my young nephew once what colour is your hair. He thought long and hard and said "it was blue in the wind". (in case youre wondering he knew that it blew in the wind)

[Bbbananas]

...could explain my BF's totally appalling taste in, and usually wrong description of, colours.

[Old_Geezer]

Interesting point. Since colour equates to wavelength I guess you can not help but see the right colour (eye deficits aside). The problem is whether the brain interprets it the same to give you the same conscious sensation as someone else.

Until the brain function is known in detail that might be hard to determine, but as some here suggest, it could account for some folk's taste in colour combination.