Green Eyes Crying in the Rain: A Colorful Lesson in Empathy
When I play board games with my family that include both blue and green pieces, things can get complicated. I’ll sometimes move the wrong piece, not because I’m trying to cheat, but because I have a mild blue-green color blindness or deficiency, and I can’t always distinguish the difference.?
My family keeps me honest (in life and The Game of Life), but they rarely miss an opportunity to remind me that I’m color blind. So, if I tell my daughter I think she’s looks pretty in the blue dress, and she says, “This dress is green, dad!” I’ve always just assumed that I was wrong.
However, last week I read an interesting article that gave me a different perspective.???
The Great Blue-Green Debate: It's Not Just Me!
Dr. Patrick Mineault, a visual neuroscientist, and his wife, Dr. Marissé Masis-Solano, an ophthalmologist, were having their own blue-green showdown over a blanket in their house. He saw the blanket as unambiguously green and she saw it as unambiguously blue.?
Now, you'd think two experts in visual perception would have this stuff figured out, right? Wrong. It turns out, the line between blue and green is blurrier than we thought – and I'm not just talking about my vision.
Quantifying the Subjective: Is My Blue Your Green?
Dr. Mineault, being the tech-savvy scientist he is, decided to tackle this problem head-on. He created a website called ismy.blue to help quantify where people draw the line between blue and green.? The test shows viewers a series of solid colors and asks them “is this blue or green.”? There are a range of hues between the two colors, and each of us creates our own boundary between them.
I took the 30-second test and learned that my boundary is at hue 172, greener than 66% of the population. For me, turquoise is blue.
Curious, I roped my family into taking the test too. The results?
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No wonder we can't agree.
The Colorful Path to Empathy
Now, you might be thinking, "That's a fun party trick, but what's the point?" Well, my neurodiverse friends, this little experiment teaches us something profound about empathy.
You see, we all walk around assuming that everyone sees the world the same way we do. But the truth is, my blue might be your green, my fear might be your excitement, and my hopes might be your dreads. If it is difficult for close family members to agree what is blue and what is green, imagine how difficult it can be for all the variety of humans on Earth to talk about what is good, wrong, or worthwhile.?
Understanding this – and really internalizing it – is the key to empathy. It's about recognizing that our perspectives are just that: perspectives. They're not universal truths, no matter how convinced we are.
When we approach conversations and relationships with this in mind, magical things happen. We become more open to other viewpoints, more patient with differences, and more understanding of the rich tapestry of human experience.
Painting a More Empathetic World
So, the next time you find yourself in a heated debate over whether a dress is blue and black or white and gold, take a step back. Instead of trying to prove you're right, get curious. Ask questions. Try to see the world through the other person's eyes – or at least their color receptors.
?In our work at Health Nuts Media, we strive to bring this empathetic approach to everything we do. Whether we're creating animated videos for veterans or designing interactive games for kids with chronic illnesses, we always start by asking questions like: How does our audience see the world? What's their perspective? How can we bridge the gap between their reality and the information we need to convey?
It's not always easy, and sometimes it feels like we're trying to explain colors to a dog (no offense to our canine friends). That’s one of the great powers of storytelling – to help audiences experience the world from another’s perspective.? And when we get it right? – when we create that moment of connection and understanding – it's like watching a black-and-white world burst into full, glorious color.
In the end, it's not about being right or wrong – it's about learning to appreciate the beautiful, messy rainbow of human perception. It’s hard work, but it can also be “Seriously Fun!”
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