What color are these skulls?

We’re having flashbacks of Laurel/Yanny or maybe the black/gold or blue/black dress predicament. Either way, it’s got several in the newsroom asking: what color are these skulls?

From first glance, it’s easy to think they are purple and orange, however, that’s not the case. According to the original post from Popular Science, the skulls are both red.

This is due to an illusion neuroscientists call the Munker-White illusion, which shifts the perception of two identical color tones when they’re placed against different surrounding hues. Basically, the illusion causes your eyes to shift toward the color of the objects that surround it. For instance: a grey element in a black-and-white image would appear lighter in color when it’s striped with a white line, and darker when striped with a black line.

Photo Courtesy: Hubert Tereszkiewicz/Popular Science

No one knows for sure why this illusion happens, however, neuroscientists think parts in our brains that are in charge of relaying information about the pigments in our visual field get averaged out, therefore, creating a color that appears to the eye as somewhere in the middle.

In the picture with the skulls, one is covered by blue stripes in the foreground and the other with yellow stripes, explaining why your eye might see those colors. The original red skulls essentially take on those two colors, making your eyes see completely different colors other than red.

Don’t be completely fooled though: if you follow both skulls up and down though, you should see red.