The Shocking Truth About Reality (And How to Leverage It)

In 2015, there was a phenomenon that was tearing the internet apart.

BuzzFeed posted a photo that was taken with a bad cellphone camera and asked:

"Do you see a white and gold dress or a blue and black dress?"

A seemingly innocuous question, but the debate was raging.

Which do YOU see?

Swiked, who initially posted this picture on Tumblr said:

So what is actually happening?

Pascal Wallisch, a neuroscientist at New York University believes he figured out the difference between the two groups of people.

In a 13,000 people online survey, he found a correlation between what people say the color was and whether they considered themselves

A NIGHT OWL or a DAY LARK.

Night Owls prefer staying up late and Day Larks get up early and get more sunlight throughout their day.

If you saw white & gold -> It's more likely you're a DAY LARK

If you saw blue & black -> It's more likely you're a NIGHT OWL

How is this possible?

Our eyes can't actually measure color wavelengths. It's left to our brains to make an inference on color in a way that's meaningful.

See this GIF below (click on image if the GIF doesn't work for you).

NOTE: The physical color of the square is NOT changing.

When DAY LARKS see an ill-lit image like the dress, it assumes it is being bathed in sunlight, so the mind subtracts blue, which is what sunlight primarily consists of and what’s left is yellow -> White & Gold

When NIGHT OWLS see the same image , it assumes it is being lit by an indoor lightbulb, and the mind perceives the dress to be a totally different color -> Blue & Black

The realities for the DAY LARKS and the NIGHT OWLS are different, and they will stand by what they see as the truth. As they say, "seeing is believing."

And boy do we believe.

BASE PRINCIPLE

Our perception is our reality.

WHAT IF?

What if you can leverage the fact that reality is not black and white? What if you could use it to change any circumstance?

But Howie, there is still a singular, objective reality right?

Well...

In 1961, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Eugene Wigner outlined a thought experiment demonstrating a paradox in quantum mechanics.

• Wigner's friend is measuring a single polarized photon in a lab.

• While Wigner is measuring a polarized photon from afar.

His thought experiment showed:

Wigner’s friend is measuring a single polarized photon in a lab - resulting in either a horizontal or vertical polarization.

And Wigner is measuring the same polarized photon from afar - resulting in a superposition (where according to the laws of quantum mechanics states that the photon will exist in both states at the same time)

Two different realities.

Sure this is "just" a thought experiment (bear in mind, many of Einstein's theories were thought experiments)

In 2019, research scientists at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh conducted an experiment that proved Wigner right.

These scientists in Edinburgh found without ambiguity two irreconcilable realities existing at the same time.

"It seems that, in contrast to classical physics, measurement results cannot be considered absolute truth but must be understood relative to the observer who performed the measurement"

​Martin Ringbauer, Physicist

I'm no physicist and don't pretend to understand it all, but this just blows my mind.

As a brand thinker, I ask myself - how do we use this?

​Two Ways

1/ Don't immediately accept what your mind is telling you

When something is important to you and the stakes are high. Take a step back and consider different ways to understand what you are observing. Remember that your mind is making up things to fill the gaps.

When buying something substantial - is this really something of value? Or is it just a perception created to mask what's behind it?

2/ If reality is not helpful, change it

There is always a way to shape and change perceptions, which means reality can change, even if it seems absolute. Be open to ways that can alter what may seem fatal or immovable.

Redbull is an energy drink that when they did a taste test, they flunked. "It tastes like piss." Look where are they now?

If your circumstance is terrible, reframe and tell yourself a different story - glass half empty or half full?

Now go create some magic!

Live your legend,

Howie Chan

Creator of Legend Letters

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Sources:

1. Resnick, Brian, "Reality" is Constructed by Your Brain. Here's What That Means, and Why it Matters, Vox, June 22, 2020 - LINK​

2. Wallisch, Pascal, Illumination Assumptions Account for Individual Differences in the Perceptual Interpretation of a Profoundly Ambiguous Stimulus in the Color Domain: "The Dress", Journal of Vision, June 2017 - LINK​

3. Ciaccia, Chris, More Than One Reality Exists, Shocking Study Says, Fox News, March 20, 2019 - LINK​

4. ​A Quantum Experiment Suggests There's No Such Thing as Objective Reality, MIT Technology Review, March 12, 2019 - LINK