Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL about Tetrachromacy, a condition which lets you see more colors. Normal people can see about 1 million colors, while tetrachromats may see up to 100 million. Up to 12% of women may have it. (www.healthline.com)

submitted 10 months ago by garfaagel to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 10 months ago

According to about 12 seconds of googling this article feels borderline. This article specifically references a 2010 study that says 12% of women carry the gene however the article fails to mention what the study specifically says. In the opening paragraph if the study it says "However, the existing evidence is sparse and inconclusive." & "Our results suggest that most carriers of color anomaly do not exhibit four-dimensional color vision, and so we believe that anomalous trichromacy is unlikely to be maintained by an advantage to the carriers in discriminating colors."

I found three different studies regarding this. One said that it was about 15% of women, one said it was 50% of women and 8% of men. Another said that women with color vision defficiency and mild color blindness might have tetrachomacy effectively rendering the extra cones pointless. ANOTHER study showed that only one person EVER had been diagnosed with Tetrachomacy.

While I really appreciate media that brings to light conditions that the average person might not know about I really dislike articles and media that make things seem way more common then they are and/or portray things as fact that are far more nuanced. We already have enough people self diagnosing themselves or self identifying with abilities/disabilities