The INSIDER Summary:Most of us know how easy it is to Photoshop pictures these days.According to new research, however, we're not that good atspottingalteredphotos when we see them.Participants in a recent study were able to identify a digitally altered photo only 60% of the time, on average.Even when they could correctly identify an alteredphoto, only 45% could point out exactly what had been changed.Most of us know how easy it is to edit photos these days.You can use Photoshop to make drastic changes in seconds. You can blur wrinkles and whiten your teeth right on your smartphone. You can evenchange your facial expressionson video in real time.However, according to a study published on Tuesdayinthe journal "Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications," we're not that good atspottingPhotoshoppedphotosdespite what we may think.Across two experiments, researcher Sophie Nightingale showed 1,366 people a series of 10 images and asked them whether or not they were digitally altered.All the images were of "real-world scenes" (e.g., a man taking a selfie in front of the Golden Gate Bridge), and two types of edits were made: "plausible" editssuch as airbrushed skin, and"physically implausible manipulations" such as shadows facing the wrong way.Below aretwo of the edited photos Nightingale used in her study:The first is an example of a physicallyplausiblemanipulation.In the edited photo on the right, a water pipe has been digitally added to the wall in the background.And the second is an example of a physically implausible manipulation.In the edited photo on the right, the man's shadow has been altered to face the wrong way.On average, peoplewere able to identify manipulated photos 60% of the time in the first experiment and65% of the time in the second.That's more accurate than they would have been if they had just randomly guessedbut not by much. In fact, even when people could correctly identify an alteredphoto, only 45% could point out exactly what had been altered.The findings also suggest that our ability to detect alteredphotos is influenced more by the amount of change in an edited picture than theplausibility of those changes.As photo editing tools become more advanced, studies like this one are an "important first step in understanding" our perception of manipulated images, writes Nightingale,a PhD student who conducts cognitive psychology researcher at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England.There's no clear answer to how we should deal with edited photos, despite their prevalencein the mediaand on social networking platformslike Instagram. But whether the solution is to create aclear set of guidelinesfor the responsible use of Photoshopthink the Hippocratic Oath, but for content creatorsor tostop its usealtogether, we should all be more wary of the images we see in our everyday lives."Photos are incredibly powerful. They influence how we see the world. They can even influence our memory of things. If we cant tell the fakeones from the real ones, the fakes are going to be powerful, too," Nightingaletold The Washington Post.Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: A hacker reveals the most secure thing you can do to your passwords
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