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Social Media Flipping Out Over The Color Of These Flip-Flops

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) --  There's a new color controversy brewing online.

A tweeted photo of a pair of flip-flops has everyone asking "what color do you see?"

Twitter user @positivedemi posted the photo of the flip flops on Nov. 17. As of Monday morning, a poll on Buzzfeed shows around 45 percent of people see the shoes as white and gold, around 20 percent of people see blue and gold and 19 percent see black and blue.

The flip-flop controversy is very similar to "The Dress" debate of 2015, which sparked a scientific discussion on human color perception.

The Dress: White And Gold, Blue And Black
Is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? (Credit: Swiked/Tumblr, via CBS Miami)

Following the dress debacle, Wired.com provided a scientific explanation about why people can't agree. The publication explained that human eyes are evolved to see in daylight, but daylight changes color at different times of day.

Thus, neuroscientist Bevel Conway told the publication, the brain unconsciously tries to discount the "chromatic bias" of the daylight axis – which ranges from a stark blue and white in the midday hours to red at dawn and dusk. The result is that people discount the blue and see white and gold, or discount the gold and see blue and white, Conway explained to Wired.com.

The person who originally posted the photo has confirmed the flip flops are actually blue, dark blue and black.

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