The camera isn't supposed to lie, but when it does, most of us can't tell the difference. People easily swallow photographic fibs and even incorporate them into their memories of major historical events, a new study shows.
Italian and American researchers showed volunteers authentic photos of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest, and of a 2003 anti-Iraq war demonstration in Rome.
Then they showed them a set of doctored photos. In the Tiananmen Square photo, a crowd of thousands was added to the lone protester facing the tanks in Beijing. Riot police and gas masks were added to the Italian photo to give the peaceful Rome protests a violent tone.
Those who viewed the manipulated images "remembered" the events as bigger and more violent than they were. The result was the same with older volunteers who had firsthand memories of Tiananmen Square. One participant even condemned the protesters in Rome for causing damage to the city and confronting police -- neither of which actually happened.
These false "memories" ultimately can affect future behaviour, the study reveals. People said they were unlikely to participate in a similar event after viewing doctored photos that led them to "remember" the peaceful protests in Rome as dangerous.
Television, magazines and newspapers are the main channels through which many people learn about the world, the authors note, and are "generally trusted" as reliable sources.
"When such media employ digitally doctored photographs, they may have a stronger effect than merely influencing our opinion; by tampering with our malleable memory, they may ultimately change the way we recall history," the paper concludes.
The study, published in the December issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology,(http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/4438/home) was conducted by researchers at the University of California at Irvine and Italy's University of Padua. It claims to be the first to investigate how doctored images affect people's memory of public events -- but others have shown personal memories to be just as elastic.
Researchers have convinced people they nearly drowned as children, took a hot-air balloon ride or even witnessed a demonic possession, simply by showing them edited photos or falsified written accounts.
The study authors cite several recent examples of doctored photos reaching mainstream audiences before they were uncovered. In 2003, the Los Angeles Times ran a photo on its front page of a British soldier directing Iraqi civilians to take cover from insurgent fire. It was soon revealed to be a fake and cost the photographer his job.
Another falsified image made the Internet rounds during the 2004 presidential race, purportedly showing Democratic candidate John Kerry sharing the podium at an anti-Vietnam war rally with Jane Fonda in the 1970s.
Digital photography and increasingly powerful software makes it "easier and seamless" to generate these images, says Bill White, a technician and teacher in the photojournalism program at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ont. He worries that has made readers and viewers more distrustful of media, but he points out that people have been faking or altering photos almost since the first click of a camera shutter.