Can you spot what's fake in these pictures? More than half of those asked couldn't put their finger on it (5 Pics)

Do you think you could easily spot a fake image?

And if you knew it was fake, would you be able to single out what's wrong with it?

Apparently most of us can't tell what's wrong with a faked picture and some are worried it underlines the threat of fake news and propaganda.
A study of more than 700 people found that four in ten couldn't tell a fake picture from a real one.
Their success rate at detecting a phony image of a real-world scene was only 60 per cent, said scientists.
And even then those that did notice something wrong could only spot what it was 45% of the time.
Have a go at the two examples below and see if you can spot what's fake.


1. Can you spot what's fake in this photo

Here's the answer...

And the original image...

The study published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications used a bank of 40 images created from 10 originals sourced from Google Images - six of which were changed in five different ways.

These included both plausible and implausible physical manipulations to create 30 altered pictures.

The 707 participants in the online test were shown 10 images at random that included each of the five manipulated types and five originals and were never shown the same one twice.

An average 60 percent were correctly identified as being manipulated when participants were asked "Do you think this photo has been digitally altered?" - just over the chance performance of 50%.

But of the people that answered "yes" only an average 45 percent of manipulations could be correctly located when a grid was placed over the image and participants were prompted to select the regions where a change had been made.

2. Can you spot what's fake in this photo?

Here's the answer..

And the original...

The findings shed fresh light on the growing problem of fake news - seen during the recent UK and US elections.

Lead author Sophie Nightingale, a PhD student at Warwick University, said: "Our study found 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 - people are exposed to on a daily basis through social networking sites, the internet and the media."

She said the phenomenon could endanger national security as well as democracy.

Ms Nightingale said: "The rise of photographic manipulation has consequences across almost all domains from law enforcement and national security through to scientific publication, politics, media and advertising.

"Currently however science knows very little about people's ability to distinguish between original and fake images.

"The question of whether people can identify when images have been manipulated and what has been manipulated in the images of real world scenes remains unanswered."

Here are three more examples...

Fake image

The shadow has been removed from the pint glass nearest to the man


Real image

Fake image

A shorter looking white post has been made to look taller


Real image

Fake image

The man's face has been airbrushed


Real image

Co-author Dr Derrick Watson explained: "We found people were better at detecting physically implausible manipulations but not any better at locating these manipulations, compared to physically plausible manipulations.

"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."

Last year a study found up to 80 percent of students in the US couldn't tell the difference between sponsored content and a real news story.

Fake news refers to news from dubious sources, advertising content, or stories that are just totally made up - but which still go viral on Facebook and Twitter.