One third of fake images go undetected in recent study

A third of manipulated images go undetected in new University of Warwick research. Researchers took photos of real world scenes and edited them in different ways - showed a group of participants a variety of original and altered images 58% of the original, unaltered images were identified - and only 65% of the manipulated photos were spotted (just above results participants would get from choosing randomly) Photo manipulation is easier now than ever - we must be more vigilant, especially against fake images used in journalism or in courts, as well as in magazines and social media Around one third of fake images went undetected in a recent study by the University of Warwick. New research, led by Sophie Nightingale from the Department of Psychology, has discovered that when people were faced with manipulated images of real-world scenes, they failed to spot around thirty-five percent of them. 659 people aged 13-70 were asked to view a set of images of ordinary scenes - such as a man standing in a residential street, or a woman posing next to a canal - taken by the researchers. The researchers digitally altered the photographs in subtle, plausible ways, including: airbrushing (clearing faces of imperfections, such as whitening teeth); addition or subtraction of items (for example, a bin appears on the street scene which wasn't actually there). There were also some implausible changes, such as shadows being manipulated. Observing a variety of the original and edited images, the participants were asked "do you think this photograph has been digitally altered?" Just over half (58%) of the original, unaltered images were correctly identified - and only 65% of the photographs which had been manipulated were spotted.