Feedback and education improve human detection of image manipulation on social media

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of educational interventions and feedback on users' ability to detect manipulated images on social media, addressing a gap in research that has primarily focused on algorithmic approaches. Through a pre-registered randomized and controlled experiment, we found that feedback and educational content significantly improved participants’ ability to detect manipulated images on social media. However, the educational content did not result in a significantly greater improvement compared to feedback alone. These findings underscore feedback as a powerful tool for enhancing digital literacy, with practical implications for combating misinformation.