Differences in attention in near vs. far hand conditions during propaganda viewing

The propaganda images used during the active time of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), were one of the most influential images used to promote a certain ideology. In modern times, these images seem outdated. However, do these propaganda images still influence our perception of Adolf Hitler and his ideology? Using eye tracking, we analyzed the attention distribution of people touching these pictures to find influences of the “near-hand phenomenon”, which explains a more sympathetic affect towards people we touch. It was found that the near-hand viewing condition leads to lower viewing duration and higher number of fixations, indicating a tendency to devote more attention to the images when touching them than compared to the control group.