Fake Photos Alter Real Memories
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clipped from www.livescience.comFake Photos Alter Real Memories
Original photo of the Tianamen Square protest in Beijing (left) and the doctored photo of the event, with a crowd added (right). Credit: UCI
Some researchers are worried that digitally altered photos could alter our perceptions and memories of public events.
"It’s potentially a form of human engineering that could be applied to us against our knowledge and against our wishes, and we ought to be vigilant about it," said UC Irvine psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, who designed the study. "With the addition of a few little upsetting and arousing elements in the Rome protest photo, people remembered this peaceful protest as being more violent than it was, and as a society we have to figure how we can regulate this."