The Purple Illusion: What leadership can learn about focus, perspective, and collective reality

Take a moment to look at the image below. Which dot is purple?

At first glance, one dot stands out as purple while the others appear bluish. Shift your gaze, and suddenly a different dot becomes purple. The surprising truth? Every single dot is identical.

This effect, described in a recent paper by researcher Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt, is called the Purple Fixation Illusion. On the surface, it’s a visual curiosity. But when we look deeper, it becomes a very nice metaphor for leadership, decision-making, and how organizations construct their shared reality.

Why your eyes deceive you

To understand the illusion, we need to unpack a little color science.

Unlike red or green, purple is not a spectral color. You won’t find a single wavelength of light that is “purple.” Instead, it’s a psychological creation: your brain blends red and blue signals, with little to no green, to create the sensation we label “purple.”

In the very center of our gaze — the fovea — there are very few S-cones (the receptors that detect blue light). So when you look directly at a dot, your brain must perform a delicate balancing act to interpret it as purple. When you shift your gaze, the dot falls into the periphery, where contrast and cone distribution bias the perception toward blue.

The result: the dot hasn’t changed, but your perception has.

And that’s the leadership (and life) lesson: reality (in business) is not a fixed truth, it’s a constructed experience.

Leadership lessons from the Purple Illusion

1. Focus shapes reality

In the illusion, whichever dot you focus on becomes purple. Your gaze alone transforms the picture.

Organizations work the same way. What leaders choose to look at most intently has the power to define reality for everyone else.

Picture a CEO walking into the Monday leadership meeting. If their eyes are drawn immediately to the risks in the quarterly report — the looming competitor, the potential market dip — the whole conversation will tilt toward danger. Soon, the team begins to operate in a world painted with threat, even if the horizon is full of opportunity.

Now imagine a manager who starts every team huddle by pointing out who missed a deadline last week. Before long, employees feel they’re living in a culture where failure is everywhere, even though achievements are quietly piling up in the background. The “truth” becomes one of chronic underperformance.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. A leader who makes a habit of calling out progress, recognizing talent, and spotlighting creative wins sends a different signal. Over time, that focus amplifies those qualities. The organization begins to see itself through that lens, capable, resourceful, and moving forward.

Just like in the illusion, the dots never change. Only the gaze does. And that’s enough to transform the whole picture. Focus is not neutral, and acts as a magnifying glass, coloring the entire picture.

Leadership takeaway: Ask yourself regularly, what am I choosing to see? And what am I unintentionally ignoring?

2. Perspective changes the picture

In the illusion, the purple “moves” with your gaze. This means the same object looks different depending on your perspective.

And in business, this plays out daily! One leader looks at a missed quarterly target and sees a sign of decline, a warning light flashing red. Another looks at the very same number and frames it as evidence of experimentation, a company testing bold ideas and learning faster than its competitors. Neither is lying; they’re simply gazing from different angles.

Or, think of a heated disagreement between departments. To some, it’s dysfunction, a crack in the culture. To others, it’s the sound of healthy friction, the sparks that fly before innovation takes shape. Even a downturn in the market can carry two radically different stories: it can feel like the end of the road — or like the opening to reinvent an entire business model.

The danger for leaders is not in choosing one frame or the other, but in believing that their frame is the only one. Tunnel vision is what happens when you stop moving your gaze.

The best leaders keep shifting their perspective, not because they enjoy ambiguity, but because they know that every new angle unlocks possibilities that were invisible a moment before.

Leadership takeaway: When faced with a challenge, deliberately ask: What else could this mean if I shifted my lens?

3. Shared reality is fragile

One person’s “purple” is another person’s “blue.” And in organizations, this is everywhere:

• Finance sees caution where Marketing sees potential.

• Executives see efficiency where employees see burnout.

• Headquarters sees global alignment where regional teams see stifling rigidity.

  
  

Assuming that everyone shares the same “truth” is one of the most common leadership errors. Misalignment doesn’t come from bad intentions, but comes from different vantage points.

Leadership takeaway: Great leaders don’t enforce one “correct” perception. They acknowledge and integrate multiple viewpoints into a richer shared reality.

From Illusion to Action: Practical leadership practices

So how can leaders translate the Purple Illusion into tangible behaviors?

1. Audit your attention

   • Keep a “focus journal” for a week. Note where most of your leadership attention goes: problems? opportunities? people? numbers?

   • Share this with a trusted colleague or coach, is your focus balanced, or distorting your perception?

     
     

2. Deliberate perspective shifts

   • In meetings, play the role of “devil’s advocate” against your own assumptions. Even better if you have someone deliberately assigned to this role.

   • Rotate decision-making discussions through different lenses: risk, opportunity, employee experience, customer value.

     
     

3. Build shared seeing

   • Use structured exercises where departments present how they see the same problem.

   • Ask explicitly: What does this look like from your vantage point?

   • Don’t stop at agreement, aim for integration of perspectives.

     
     

4. Visual metaphors for teams

   • Share illusions like this one with your teams. They’re powerful tools to make abstract ideas visceral: everyone experiences firsthand how perception is constructed.

   • This creates a safe entry point for deeper discussions about bias, blind spots, and alignment.

     
     

Why illusions work in leadership development

Most leadership challenges are not due to lack of intelligence or effort. They stem from perceptual blind spots. Leaders don’t see what they’re missing, or they assume their perspective is the only one.

That’s why in my workshops and keynotes, I use psychological illusions as interactive experiences. They bypass theory and deliver an embodied insight: you can’t always trust what you see — and neither can your team.

From there, we build practical strategies to expand focus, shift perspectives, and foster alignment across diverse viewpoints.

The result: leaders who don’t just react to their “blue” or “purple” version of reality but who can skillfully navigate the full spectrum.

So next time you feel certain about what you “see,” pause. Consider: What might look different if I shifted my gaze? And how can I help my team see together more clearly?

That’s the real magic of leadership: not controlling the dots, but mastering the art of perception

Reference: Schulz-Hildebrandt, H. (2025). When Purple Perceived Only at Fixation: A Fixation and Distance-Dependent Color Illusion [Preprint]. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.11582