HANY FARID: This picture? It’s a fake. But you know what people remember? They don't remember, "It's a fake." They remember the picture. And there are psychology studies, when you tell people that information is incorrect, they forget that it is incorrect. They only remember the misinformation. They forget the tag associated with it. They did these great studies, especially with older people. They give them information about health, Medicare, Medicaid, that kind of stuff. And they say, "this information that you heard? It's wrong." And what ends up happening is, that information gets ingrained into their brains, and even if they are subsequently told it's wrong, they end up believing it.
New York Times, Photography as a Weapon, essay and interviews by Errol Morris. Anyone interested in photojournalism and "fauxtography" should read this. Even the footnotes are fascinating.
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