The Color Purple? It’s All in Your Head

If purple is your favorite color, this might surprise you. A new study says purple isn’t a “real” color like red or blue. It turns out, purple is something our brain makes up.

Here’s how it works: Our eyes have special cells that help us see color. These cells recognize red, green, or blue light. But when we see both red and blue light at the same time, our brain doesn’t know how to handle it. So instead, it mixes them together and creates purple.

So yes, we do see purple. But it doesn’t have its own light wavelength like other colors. It’s not found in the natural rainbow the way red or green are. It’s just a clever way our brain fills in the blanks.

For example, when we look at a rainbow, we see seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. You might think purple is one of them but it’s not. “Violet” is a real color and very close to ultraviolet light, which is just beyond what our eyes can see. But “purple” as we know it? That’s a beautiful illusion created just for us.