Murder by colorblindness

Marian Perera

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Hey everyone,

I have a scenario in the WIP where people need to wear red in a certain location to survive.

My MC wants to kill someone we'll call A, and A has red-green colorblindness. A orders MC to fetch his red coat, because he's going into the danger zone.

Would it be possible for MC to give A a coat of a different color, one that isn't red, so A dies? If so, what color should the coat be in reality? So that it looks as convincing as possible to A, I mean.

Thanks for any help you can provide. :)
 

Drachen Jager

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If the character is familiar with the coat in question that'd be a tough swap. People with colorblindness still have a fairly good range of vision and though it's possible to match up two colors so that it'll fool the person, it's almost impossible without the help of that person.

I think the scenario would stretch my credulity as a reader.
 

Marian Perera

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If the character is familiar with the coat in question that'd be a tough swap.

OK, it's a new coat that had been made for A, but which A hadn't actually seen for himself before. Two such coats are delivered, one red and one another-color, and MC deliberately mixes them up.

If it still seems implausible, I'll have A be drunk or in a desperate hurry because he just found out his wife was dying. So he doesn't have time to double-check that the coat is the right color. This is all backstory for the MC, so I may not even need to go into great detail to make it plausible.

I just need to have an idea what color is the coat the MC actually gives him.
 

A_Read

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I knew someone who was colorblind to red and all shades of red and pink looked like the corresponding shade of grey to him.

He once wore a pair of pale pink pants for years, believing them to be grey!
 

Viridian

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So the coat that MC tricks him into wearing should be green.

Thanks, guys. Rep points incoming. :)
To add to what's already been said...

This link is probably what you're looking for. It gives a list of colors that a red-green colorblind person would mix up.

And this link compares crayons to show what colorblind people see vs what normal people see.

So, yeah. You can pretty much hand 'em a green coat.
 

skylark

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I think the problem is that they'll know what their coat looks like, feels like, how worn it is, what's in the pockets...

Suppose you asked someone to bring you your red coat, and instead they brought you a different red coat. Wouldn't you notice?

You might be better off if A orders your MC to find him a red coat (i.e. not his own coat but one he won't be familiar with anyway).
 

Trebor1415

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Does it have to be a coat? Would it work for him to ask for a red armband, scarf, etc? That way he isn't asking for "his" coat specifically, just something the right color, and he won't be as familiar with the piece of fabric he's given.
 

Marian Perera

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I think the problem is that they'll know what their coat looks like, feels like, how worn it is, what's in the pockets...

Suppose you asked someone to bring you your red coat, and instead they brought you a different red coat. Wouldn't you notice?

You might be better off if A orders your MC to find him a red coat (i.e. not his own coat but one he won't be familiar with anyway).

Agreed. That's why it won't be his own coat he's completely familiar with. It'll be something new he's never seen before.

Does it have to be a coat? Would it work for him to ask for a red armband, scarf, etc? That way he isn't asking for "his" coat specifically, just something the right color, and he won't be as familiar with the piece of fabric he's given.

It would, because the magic is basically "anything red".

But most people are afraid enough that they want a lot more red than just a scarf (which could fall off more easily than a coat would). Just so you know, this is a fantasy retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. I wondered why someone would wear a red cloak and hood, and here's the answer: the more they're covered by that color, the safer they feel.

And another reason I need a coat is because it's a play of words on "turncoat", which is how people see the MC because of his betrayal of A.

But this sounds like an easy fix, if A is not familiar with the coat. Thanks for commenting!
 

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If the colored thing is a signal to someone who is assigned to kill anyone who comes out a certain door without that item, then having a red scarf requested, and the MC will fetch a gray scarf instead. The color blind character will go through the door and the waiting assassin will take care of business. I have read something like that, but it can work.
 

Marian Perera

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If the colored thing is a signal to someone who is assigned to kill anyone who comes out a certain door without that item, then having a red scarf requested, and the MC will fetch a gray scarf instead. The color blind character will go through the door and the waiting assassin will take care of business. I have read something like that, but it can work.

The color actually keeps away the wolves in the wood. Little Red Riding Hood retelling. :)
 

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I assume your color-challenged MC is a male, but it's worth mentioning. Color-blindness in humans is a gene defect on the Y chromosome, which is the one that determines sex. Females do not have a Y chromosome, so color-blindness is strongly limited to human males.

You might also enjoy a bit of research: Oliver Sacks' book The Island of the Color-Blind is excellent, a great enjoyable read. One of the things I learned from it is that color-blind people often have very acute visual perception, because their vision, in comparison to full-spectrum sighted people, is not as affected by chromatic aberration (the difference in refraction of short- and long-wavelength light).

As an aside, we own a local toy store, which my wife runs. Three or so years ago we had an excellent employee, hired straight from high school, named Aaron, who was severely color-blind. He wasn't particularly embarrassed by it, but occasionally would come to one of us (I worked there during busy times) with a box of Toy X, and ask things like, "Is this red or blue?". My wife had purchased work aprons for every employee, in order to identify them to customers. They all had the store logo on them, and came in various colors. For Aaron, she got a white one, with black logo. After a couple of years working there, he quit to go back to school, where he is finishing a computer science degree. As a parting gift, he got the apron.

caw
 
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LJD

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I assume your color-challenged MC is a male, but it's worth mentioning. Color-blindness in humans is a gene defect on the Y chromosome, which is the one that determines sex. Females do not have a Y chromosome, so color-blindness is strongly limited to human males.

I thought it was on the X chromosome? Since females have two X chromosomes, they need to have the defect on both. Whereas males just need to have it on their single X chromosome, since they are XY.
 

Marian Perera

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I assume your color-challenged MC is a male, but it's worth mentioning.

Oh yes. I learned that much from an Agatha Christie short story called "The Harlequin Tea Set", where colorblindness plays a role in a crime being committed. :)

Thanks also for the book rec!
 

blacbird

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I thought it was on the X chromosome? Since females have two X chromosomes, they need to have the defect on both. Whereas males just need to have it on their single X chromosome, since they are XY.

Ach! You are correct. My error. To me, X and Y look a lot alike, because my visual acuity ain't none too good (I wear glasses made from the bottoms of old soda bottles).

caw
 

Dave Williams

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Somewhere around 10% of males are significantly red/green color blind. The figures vary widely across sources; being red/green blind myself, I can often pass the tests by noticing offsets on the printed swatches, so some of the vagueness may be in the tests themselves... If the colors are "bright" enough I can usually tell them apart. I have a theory that rather than completely lacking the proper receptors, some people just have a shortage of them, or they're not as sensitive as they should be.

Rainbows have two colors. Blue and yellow. Pictures show bands of colors, but real ones only have two.

Not long ago it was discovered there's an inverse of color-blindness - it's called tetrachromacy, and again it's sex-linked. Some women have extra receptors, and can see colors ordinary people can't. Oddly, this seems to be about the same percentage as for male color blindness. It's a "super power" few people seem to know about... here's a link: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140905-the-women-with-super-human-vision