Attention game · you read without meaning to · two shifts
Tap the color, not the word. Easy?
Reading is automatic and you cannot switch it off. When the word RED is printed in blue, your hand hesitates. Measure the hesitation: 8 honest labels, then 8 lying ones.
- Local
- 16 trials
- 30 seconds
Nothing leaves your browser. A classic effect from 1935, words drawn on the page. A game, not a medical test.
Play: two shifts
Every time, tap the color the word is printed in, not what it says. The first 8 labels tell the truth. The next 8 lie.
Why it happens
You read without permission. The word reaches meaning before you can ignore it, and when the meaning says one thing and the ink says another, your brain pays for an extra step: check, choose, then tap. That is why the second shift comes out slower and messier, though nobody changed the rule. Labs have measured this conflict since 1935, on lists read out loud. This page moves it into your finger, on your screen.
Limit, next to the claim: the game does not measure your attention and detects nothing medical. Colorblind players play a different game: this palette does not help them enough, and the page says so plainly. The buttons carry written names and numbers so the round stays playable.
Method, limits, sources
How it plays: each game shuffles 8 honest labels (each word names its own ink, every color twice) and 8 lying labels (each word lies, every ink twice). The clock starts with the label. Averages use correct trials only, with at least 3 correct per shift, otherwise the page shows a dash and withholds the cost. From the keyboard: 1-4.
Reuse: CC BY 4.0. Cite "Marius Comper — The Color or the Word? (freeze 3 September 2026)".