Colors and First Impressions

Scoutmaster Minute 3/2/2015

By now I suspect all of you have seen “the dress”. Was it white and gold, or was it blue and black?  I happened to see it as white and gold, but I understand it was actually blue and black.  My mind saw the overexposed picture, and it jumped to conclusion about what color my eyes were seeing.

That made me think a bit about illusions and what we can learn from them. Here’s one of my favorite illusions, modified to relate to you as Scouts. What color is the top fleur de lis? Blue, right? The bottom one? Bright green? Actually, they are the same color. No, seriously. (If you don’t believe me, see the picture with the colored bars removed, below.) If you look closely, the pink bars go through the top one, but the orange bars go through the bottom one.  Your mind interprets the color of the green fleur de lis differently depending on what color it is near.

The same applies to people.  Your first judgment about someone else may not be accurate – it might be colored by where you first see them or who they’re with. That new kid who looks too tough, or maybe seems annoyingly geeky, might actually be someone who could become a great friend.  (And of course even if they don’t become your buddy, the fourth point of the Scout law says you should be friendly.)