Recent research published in European Journal of Social Psychology It has been suggested that historical propaganda that glorifies dictators tends to soften people’s negative feelings about past atrocities. Scientists have found that combining images of a smiling, friendly Adolf Hitler with photos of Holocaust atrocities reduces guilt and increases positive emotions in modern German viewers. These findings provide evidence that historical propaganda can still manipulate human emotions decades after its creation.
Museums and educators often struggle with how to present historical artifacts from history’s dark ages. Some experts are concerned that displaying positive daily photos of dictators could convey a distorted image of the past to younger generations. Some argue that these materials are merely historical evidence and have no power to influence the modern psyche.
Historically, the Nazi party relied heavily on propaganda to secure public support. Much of this propaganda focused on glorifying Adolf Hitler. He was often portrayed as a sympathetic figure and a respected savior.
Scientists have extensively studied derogatory propaganda that dehumanizes marginalized groups. But we don’t have a lot of time to investigate the psychological effects of glorifying propaganda. Researchers conducted the study to see whether unflattering depictions of Hitler still influenced how people perceived the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime.
Lara Dietrich, a postdoctoral researcher at the Leibniz Wissens Institute for Media Research, explained that the scientists began the study after meeting with museum curators. The curator said propaganda images glorifying Hitler are widely considered “malicious images” in his field.
“When I started researching this statement, I was surprised that until now there had been no research into the impact of such images in psychology, even though the role propaganda played in securing the Nazis’ seizure of power is acknowledged and the continuing existence of relevant propaganda material,” Dietrich told Cypost.
She added that the research team wants to determine whether these images are truly malicious, and if so, in what way. Specifically, we wanted to know whether these images influence group-based guilt.
Group-based guilt is an emotion that people experience because of their membership in a particular group, even if they have not personally committed the wrongdoing. For example, modern Germans may feel collective guilt over the Holocaust, even though they were born long after World War II ended.
To explore this concept, the scientists first conducted two preliminary laboratory experiments with 66 and 77 participants, respectively. The researchers showed participants a slideshow of black-and-white photographs from the 1920s to the 1940s. In one group, participants viewed only 16 photos depicting atrocities committed during the Nazi era.
Other participants watched a mixed presentation that included eight photos of atrocities and eight glorified propaganda images. After the slideshow, participants rated their emotions. Researchers found early signs that mixed presentations reduced feelings associated with guilt.
To build on these initial tests, scientists conducted a large-scale laboratory experiment with 172 participants. Most of the participants were university students and answered questions in a dedicated computer lab. In the experiment, the researchers showed the first group 16 photos depicting Nazi atrocities.
The second group viewed 32 photos in random order. The slideshow consisted of 16 atrocity images and 16 glorified propaganda images. After viewing the slideshow, participants rated their current emotions using a questionnaire. The researchers found that participants in the mixed group reported significantly less guilt and shame than those who viewed only photos of atrocities.
The researchers then conducted a second confirmatory clinical study with 114 participants. The setup was almost the same as the previous experiment, but the scientists added a new questionnaire. They wanted to test whether propaganda was causing cognitive changes. Cognitive change occurs when people change the way they think about a situation to reduce its emotional impact.
For example, participants might blame a few powerful leaders or the manipulative nature of propaganda, rather than holding the group as a whole accountable. Once again, the mixed group reported lower levels of personal guilt and shame. However, the researchers found no evidence that the propaganda changed participants’ responsibility. This propaganda had no effect on broad measures of collective guilt acceptance.
To see if these effects persist outside the lab, the scientists designed a large-scale online study with 643 participants. This group was chosen to be representative of the modern German population in terms of age and gender. The researchers created a third experimental group for this study.
These new participants viewed 16 atrocity images mixed with 16 positive normal historical photos. These photos were consistent with propaganda, such as not Hitler looking at a Christmas tree, but an ordinary man looking at a Christmas tree. In this online format, the researchers did not find the same direct reduction in guilt across groups. The different image sets did not produce significant differences in participants’ reported feelings of guilt or subconscious guilt-related thoughts.
Because the online study showed different results than the laboratory study, the researchers combined data from all experiments into one large statistical analysis. A total of 860 participant observations were included in this integrated analysis. By looking at the combined data, scientists discovered broader emotional changes.
“Throughout the study, we were surprised to see how negative emotions evoked by reminders of atrocities committed under Nazi rule by past members of participants’ national groups were tempered by widespread propaganda imagery,” Dietrich said.
She pointed out that while they initially assumed the images would primarily reduce feelings associated with guilt, the overall data showed that the propaganda reduced a range of negative emotions and amplified positive ones. Participants in the mixed condition reported feeling happier, calmer, more excited, and more relaxed. This combined effect makes these images “even more ‘bad’ than we expected,” Dietrich said.
Researchers believe that this change in emotion may be caused by the deployment of attention. Attentional deployment is a psychological coping strategy in which people shift their focus away from something upsetting in order to distract themselves. The positive photo of the smiling person may have been a distraction that lessened the emotional weight of the atrocity photo.
One limitation of the study is that the online study was unable to replicate the initial experimental findings regarding guilt. The researchers suggest that participants taking online surveys from home may be less attentive to images than those sitting in a controlled laboratory environment. People in the lab may also be more motivated to engage deeply with the material.
The researchers also noted that the study focused only on propaganda from the 1930s and 1940s. It remains to be seen whether contemporary political imagery will yield the same results. Dietrich also addressed potential misinterpretations of the findings.
“We would like to emphasize that our results do not mean that all participants began approving of Hitler and his actions simply because they saw propaganda images glorifying him,” Dietrich said. “Our results are limited to showing effects on participants’ momentary emotions; we found no effects on participants’ attitudes toward National Socialism.”
As a broader lesson, Dietrich emphasized being cautious with the media. “Our research suggests that taking images at face value, even if they are old, can be dangerous,” she said. She pointed out that images can be created to have an emotional impact and do not reflect the complete truth.
While the average person may not encounter historical propaganda every day, they do encounter contemporary images that are intended to evoke or soothe certain emotions. She advised cross-referencing images with other sources. “This is especially true with the advent of ever more sophisticated AI image generators,” she added.
The study, “Bad Photography? How National Socialist Propaganda Glorifying Adolf Hitler Affects the Emotions of Modern Audiences” was authored by Lara Dietrich, Katharina Bernecker, Jonas Reinhardt and Kai Sassenberg.
