The color purple has long been a symbol of royalty, creativity, and mystery. But according to science, it’s also something else: a figment of our imaginations. While it looks just as real as red or blue, purple is actually an optical illusion crafted by your brain.
Look closely at a rainbow, and you’ll spot red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, but not purple. That’s because every color in a rainbow corresponds to a single wavelength of light. Violet, for example, exists on the far end of the visible spectrum and has its own wavelength. Surely, that means purple should be in there somewhere, right?
Well, no. Despite what many might believe, violet and purple are not the same. Violet is a real spectral color, while purple is fake and exists only as a mix of red and blue light. There’s no pure “purple” wavelength, which is why it’s left out of the rainbow entirely.
But here is where things get really wild. When your eyes detect both red and blue light at once your brain tries to make sense of it. Since there’s no direct wavelength connection — blue and red are on opposite ends of the spectrum — your brain creates a new color: purple.
This makes the color purple fake in a sense. It’s not a part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Instead, it’s a mental compromise between the two ends. Neuroscientists call it a “nonspectral color,” meaning it only exists because of how our brains process conflicting input.
This isn’t the first time our brains have surprised us, either. Scientists have recently learned that anxiety actually rewires the brain, and that we can undo that rewiring in some ways. Not to mention, we’re constantly learning new things about how our brains handle memories.
So, yes, while purple has cemented its place in society as a color intended for those of us with the highest regard given to them, especially royalty, the color itself is as fake as the movie characters we often fall in love with on the big screen. It’s a figment of our imaginations.
Sure, it might evoke real feelings, but purple will always be a fake color when you really break it down.
