Brown eyes come in a variety of shades: from light caramel-brown to dark, bordering on black. Lighter shades of brown are more common in the US and Europe, while darker hues are more prevalent in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
The lack of melanin makes the fibers scatter and absorb the longer wavelengths of light. This means that it is not true that under brown eyes there are blue ones but instead that under blue eyes, and all eye colors, they are actually brown.
“The fundamental principle is that under every brown eye is a blue eye,” Dr Gregg Homer told CNN, adding that there is no actual blue pigmentation in the eye. “The only difference between a brown eye and a blue eye is this very thin layer of pigment on the surface.
Eye color is directly related to the amount of melanin in the front layers of the iris. People with brown eyes have a large amount of melanin in the iris, while people with blue eyes have much less of this pigment. A particular region on chromosome 15 plays a major role in eye color.
While some people may appear to have irises that are black, they don't technically exist. People with black-colored eyes instead have very dark brown eyes that are almost indistinguishable from the pupil. In fact, brown eyes are even the most common eye color in newborn babies.
We found that green is the most popular lens colour, with brown coming in a close second, despite it being one of the most common eye colours. Although blue and hazel are seen as the most attractive eye colours for men and women they are surprisingly the least popular.
Brown eyes are the most common: Over half the people in the world have them, according to the AAO. In fact, about 10,000 years ago, all humans had brown eyes.
Brown eyes are more resistant to problems because they have more melanin. It also helps to repair DNA damage and to keep the eyes moist. People with brown eyes are also less likely to develop certain types of eye diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration.
Brown eyes are common in Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia, Oceania, Africa and the Americas. Light or medium-pigmented brown eyes can also be commonly found in South Europe, among the Americas, and parts of Central Asia, West Asia and South Asia.
That's right. All human eyes are brown. As the owner of a sparkling set of deep brown eyes, I see no disappointment in the knowledge that all human eyes are in fact a wonderful shade of brown, but for anyone feeling misled or confused, a mix of biology and physics should help explain this reality.
Blue is the second most common eye color globally, with an estimated 8 to 10 % of people having blue eyes. A majority of these people are of European descent, however, Black people can be born with blue eyes even though it's pretty rare.
In most people, the answer is no. Eye color fully matures in infancy and remains the same for life.
People who had deep brown eyes during their youth and adulthood may experience a lightening of their eye pigment as they enter middle age, giving them hazel eyes. Conversely, someone born with hazel eyes might see their irises get darker as they grow older.
Of all eye colors, brown seems to be the only one that could be called “advantageous” from a survival perspective. While more research is needed, darker irises are linked to a number of health benefits, including these: Reduced risk of macular degeneration. Lower melanoma risk.
When broken down by gender, men ranked gray, blue, and green eyes as the most attractive, while women said they were most attracted to green, hazel, and gray eyes. Despite brown eyes ranking at the bottom of our perceived attraction scale, approximately 79% of the world's population sports melanin-rich brown eyes.
Other eye colours
Other rare eye colours include grey eyes which sometimes have streaks of gold, amber and brown, red/pink eyes which can sometimes appear violet and heterochromia. Amber eyes are also incredibly rare and are a yellowish brown colour.
"In Australians of European ancestry, the percentage of eye colours are 45 percent blue-grey, 30 percent green-hazel and 25 percent brown. If you're considering non-European ancestry it is the almost completely brown eye colour."
The most common eye colors depend largely on geographic location. For example, Asians typically have brown eyes, while Europeans are more likely to have eyes of blue or other lighter hues. The website WorldAtlas.com takes a stab at estimating the breakdown of eye colors worldwide.
African and Asian populations are typically brown-eyed. In 2008 a team of researchers studying the OCA2 gene published results demonstrating that the allele associated with blue eyes occurred only within the last 6,000 – 10,000 years within the European population.
Gazing into people's eyes can offer insight into whether they can be trusted, and according to new research, this perception may have something to do with eye color. A study published in the journal PLOS ONE found that brown-eyed people are believed to be more trustworthy than blue-eyed people.
Changes in eye color are rare. Sometimes, the color of your eye may appear to change when your pupils dilate. The colors in your environment, including lighting and your clothes, can give the illusion of eye color change.
As previously mentioned, exposure to light causes your body to produce more melanin. Even if your eye color has set, your eye color could slightly change if you expose your eyes to more sunlight. As a result, your eyes might appear a darker shade of brown, blue, green, or gray, depending on your current eye color.
In the United States, the most common hair and eye color combination is brown hair and brown eyes, with more than 75% of the population having this combination.
Did Elizabeth Taylor have violet eyes? These days, thanks to colored contact lenses, anyone can have violet-colored eyes . Taylor didn't come by her purple peepers that way; the first tinted contact lenses weren't commercially available until 1983. Taylor's eye color was the real deal.
Your iris (the colored part of your eye) may change through a virus or disease process, leading to a slightly different hue to your eyes. The color may lighten due to a loss of pigmentation in your iris or atrophy when the muscle in your iris grows thinner. Causes could include: Pigment dispersion syndrome.