Blue or green? U.K. split over swatch’s colour

CUMBERNAULD, Scotland – A survey from a Scottish eye care company could be sparking a controversy similar to last year’s debate over the colour of a dress.

Optical Express said on its website that it conducted a survey in the United Kingdom asking whether a swatch of a teal-type colour was blue or green.

Sixty-four per cent of more than 1,000 people who responded said it was green, according to the company. Thirty-two per cent thought it was blue.

But when the same people were shown the same colour between a pair of distinctly blue swatches, the company said many changed their minds. Ninety per cent said it was the colour was green.

The results show how “our visual interpretations of the world around us can differ quite sharply,” Optical Express said.

Scotland also was the epicenter for a colour debate last year. A photo of #TheDress taken ahead of a Scottish wedding in February 2015 became the subject of a heated global discussion on social media about whether it was black and blue or white and gold.