Can you detect manipulated images or are you a victim of fake news

In the era of fake news, the ability to tell apart a true story form a made up one has become essential but news articles are not the only ones playing tricks on our minds. Sometimes they come with equally fake images. Some detailed, others blatantly manipulated, these images have become ever more present on social media and according to scientists, the majority of us can see that something is wrong but cannot pinpoint exactly what has been altered. 

We have heard a lot about fake news since the American presidential election but these fake news stories sometimes come accompanied by equally fake photographs. As photo editing becomes ever more sophisticated, so does the techniques employed to create these fake images. And it’s not only about being able to discern a true photograph in a news piece but social media seems to be under siege due to manipulated images.

But there is good news. While some still debate how and what rules we should follow in order to break the chain of fake news, a scientist form the University of Warwick came up with a test to see how much we fall for manipulated and untrue images. What Sophie Nightingale, the PhD student conducting the research found, was that we are quite able at observing that an images has been altered, it’s just that for the majority of us, it’s hard to tell what exactly has been modified.

People participating in the study detected a fake image of a real-world scene 60% of the time, but were able to tell what was wrong with the picture, only 45% of the time.

“Our study found that although people performed better than chance at detecting and locating image manipulations, they are far from perfect. This has serious implications because of the high-level of images, and possibly fake images, that people are exposed to on a daily basis through social networking sites, the internet and the media,” said Sophie Nightingale.

The researchers set up an online test that used a bank of 40 images created from 10 original images sourced from Google Images. Then, they subjected six of the images to five different types of manipulations. Some of the alterations were physically implausible while others were plausible. This way, they created 30 fake images.

Over 700 participants did the online tests in which they were shown a random selection of 10 images which included each of the five manipulation types, together with the original images. Also, participants never saw a manipulation or the original of the same image, twice.

The results showed that 60% of images were identified correctly as being fake when the viewer was asked the question “Do you think this photo has been digitally altered?”. But the percentage is only 10 points higher than a chance performance. People that answered “yes” had to identify the manipulations but only in 45% of cases, they succeeded in correctly locating them.

“We found that people were better at detecting physically implausible manipulations but not any better at locating these manipulations, compared to physically plausible manipulations,” said Dr Derrick Watson, study co-author from the University of Warwick. “So even though people are able to detect something is wrong they can’t reliably identify what exactly is wrong with the image. Images have a powerful influence on our memories so if people can’t differentiate between real and fake details in photos, manipulations could frequently alter what we believe and remember.”

In a subsequent test, over 650 people were presented with manipulated images and were asked to identify the alterations. They succeeded in 65% of the time, higher than the change performance which is situated at 39%.

While the percentages seem to be high, the scientists warn that they actually prove our poor ability to identify fake images. And this raises important questions, especially when legal issues are involved.

“People’s poor ability to identify manipulated photos raises problems in the context of legal proceedings where photos may be used as evidence, Dr Kimberley Wade, study co-author from the University of Warwick, said. “Jurors and members of the court assume these images to be real, though a manipulated image could go undetected with devastating consequences. We need to work to find better ways to protect people from the negative effects of photo manipulation, and we’re now exploring a number of ways that might help people to better detect fakes.”

By the way, if you are wondering what exactly has been altered in this article’s photo, you should study carefully the boat, which has been digitally added, the tree line, also altered, the shadows, which have also been manipulated and if you study the image you can see it has been airbrushed.

The study has been published in the open access journal Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications.