Many people find themselves confusing similar colors like green and orange. Not being able to distinguish between such colors is actually quite common, and there are a few potential reasons why this happens.
How the Eye Processes Color
In order to understand why someone might mix up green and orange, it helps to first understand how the eye processes color. There are special photoreceptor cells in the retina called cones that are responsible for detecting color. There are three types of cones:
- S cones detect short wavelength blue light
- M cones detect medium wavelength green light
- L cones detect long wavelength red light
These cone cells have sensitivity peaks that correspond to reddish, greenish, and bluish hues. The cones send signals to the brain, which then perceives specific colors based on which cones are stimulated and how strongly. If there is an issue with the cones or how the signals are processed in the brain, it can lead to color vision deficiencies.
Color Vision Deficiencies
There are a few different types of inherited color vision deficiencies that make it difficult to distinguish between certain colors:
- Red-green color blindness – This is the most common type, where people mix up red and green. It is caused by issues with the M and L cones.
- Blue-yellow color blindness – A rarer type involving confusion between blue and yellow, caused by issues with the S cones.
- Total color blindness – Very rare, where the person can only see shades of gray.
In the case of red-green color blindness, the red and green cone cells both respond similarly to oranges, yellows, and browns. This makes it extra difficult to distinguish those warm colors from each other. So even people with normal color vision may struggle with identifying subtle differences between similar shades in that color range.
Age-Related Changes
As people get older, the lenses in their eyes start to yellow and the pupils get smaller. This reduces the amount of blue light that reaches the retina. With less stimulation of the S cones, it can become harder to distinguish blues from greens and reds from oranges. So age-related changes in vision contribute to the difficulty most people have distinguishing similar colors as they get older.
Differences in Language and Culture
The way we categorize colors also plays a role in how we perceive and communicate them. Different cultures and languages have varying numbers of color terms. Speakers of languages with fewer color terms tend to group colors together into larger categories. For example, some languages do not make a distinction between blue and green, but rather have one term for the range of cool colors on the spectrum.
The Himba tribe in Namibia only has 5 basic color terms – dark, light, red, green, and yellow. When tested, Himba people actually have a harder time telling apart shades within the green/blue and orange/pink color ranges. This demonstrates how the language we speak can affect how our brain learns to separate colors.
| Culture | Number of Basic Color Terms |
|---|---|
| Himba tribe | 5 |
| English speakers | 11 |
| Hungarian | 12 |
| Russian | 12 |
Someone raised distinguishing pink from orange and lime green from forest green will naturally have an easier time telling those colors apart. While someone raised grouping them together into red and green categories understandably mixes up similar shades within those broad groups.
Issues with Screen Technology
The way colors are emitted and displayed on screens can also cause us to misinterpret what color we are actually seeing. Different types of screens have different color gamuts, or range of colors they can produce. Most screens cannot perfectly reproduce all visible colors.
LED and LCD screens rely on RGB pixels (red, green, and blue light). They essentially create other colors by mixing different levels of those three primary colors. This can cause similar hues like orange and green to get distorted or approximated in ways that make them hard to differentiate.
Factors like poor color calibration, low brightness, and narrow color gamut on a screen can result in colors that seem washed out and muddy. This makes distinguishing subtle color differences like green vs. orange especially challenging when looking at screens.
Differences in Lighting
The color of the lighting around us also impacts how we perceive color. Different types of light sources emit different wavelengths, which affects what colors we see. This is why colors can appear different in incandescent vs. fluorescent light for example.
When objects strongly reflect a wavelength not present in the light source, they appear darker and can even seem to take on a different hue. A leaf reflecting green will appear darker under warm, yellowish incandescent lighting. Blue objects appear darker under daylight balanced lights that lack blue wavelengths.
So the discrepancy between the wavelengths reflected by an object and what is emitted by the light source can warp our color perception. Looking at a green object under warm, reddish lighting could cause it to take on an earthy, brownish appearance. Making it easy to confuse with the orange objects nearby reflecting all that warm, red light strongly.
Dyslexia and Information Processing
Beyond purely visual factors, information processing differences in some individuals also lead to color confusion. People with dyslexia and similar learning disabilities often have difficulties discriminating between colors and letters. This is linked to phonological processing deficits that make it hard to map visual information like colors and symbols to their names.
Without strong connections between the visual identification and auditory naming of colors, it becomes easy to mix up similar hues. Having dyslexia or related issues with phonological processing interferes with memorizing the color spectrum in an ordered sequence. This leads to words for similar shades getting jumbled, making green and orange hard to consistently identify.
Methods for Improvement
If you struggle to tell green and orange apart, there are ways you can potentially train yourself to distinguish them more easily. Here are some methods that can help:
- Use an online color testing tool to identify problem color ranges
- Study color wheels and spectrums to memorize hue order
- Compare confusing colors side by side in controlled lighting
- Practice naming and sorting problem colors
- Play matching games to test yourself on color differentiation
- Get colorblind-assisting glasses or screen overlays
- Use a color identifier app to help label confusing colors
With mindful practice and utilizing assistive tools, you can strengthen your mental mapping between similar hues like green and orange. This can make telling them apart much easier with time and experience.
When to Seek Professional Help
If you still struggle to differentiate green and orange after working on training your color perception, consult with an optometrist or ophthalmologist. They can test for any issues with your eye anatomy and function that may be causing color blindness. An assessment can also screen for learning disabilities like dyslexia that affect color processing ability.
Some conditions that commonly cause problems distinguishing green and orange include:
- Genetic red-green color blindness
- Damage to the retina or optic nerve
- Cataracts or cloudy lenses
- Glaucoma
- Macular degeneration
- Diabetes-related eye disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Parkinson’s disease
- Dyslexia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Stroke
An eye doctor can check for many of these conditions. A neurologist may also need to evaluate brain function if the cause stems from neurological impairment. Early intervention is important for managing any underlying disorders contributing to color confusion.
Adaptations and Coping Strategies
If you have color blindness or other visual processing issues that make differentiating greens and oranges unavoidably difficult, adopting some adaptations and compensatory strategies can help you manage on a daily basis:
- Use a color identifier tool or color codes to correctly label colors
- Rely on identifying other distinguishing features besides color, such as shape, size, texture, etc.
- Ask someone you trust to identify confusing colors for you
- Avoid occupations that require fine color discrimination
- Label clothing tags with color names
- Organize clothes by pattern instead of color
- Mark appliance settings with stickers rather than relying on color cues
- Use a light or lamp that emits full spectrum light to improve color perception
It is possible to navigate the world colorblind or with impaired color vision. Implementing adaptive techniques and taking advantage of color-assisting technology can help compensate for difficulties telling green and orange apart. Being upfront about your color confusion will also allow others to provide helpful descriptions when needed.
Conclusion
Mixing up similar hues like green and orange is incredibly common. Contributing factors include inherent colorblindness, aging, cultural language differences, issues with screens, lighting conditions, information processing deficits, and underlying medical conditions affecting vision and neural function. With awareness of these various factors, using assistive tools, and implementing adaptive strategies, virtually anyone can overcome difficulties distinguishing problematic color pairs.