Colouring the Black-and-White Past
The Influence of Colour Photos versus Black and White Photos of World War II on Temporal Distance, Social Closeness, Negative Affect and Intergroup Forgiveness.
Madelon M. J. Gijzel University of Amsterdam
Student number: 10666834 Masterthesis Social Psychology 21 September 2014
1st Assessor: Vliek, M. 2nd Assessor: Cheshin, A.
Abstract
This paper examines whether colour photos of World War II (WWII) are evaluated differently than the same photos in black and white, in terms of temporal distance, social closeness, negative emotional affect and intergroup forgiveness. Relying on the Construal Level Theory (Trope & Liberman, 2003) and previous research, it was expected and supported that colour photos of WWII feel less temporally distant (H1) compared to black and white photos. However, results of the multivariate analyses of variances (MANOVA’s) showed that students did not rate colour photos as socially closer (H2), more negatively emotional intense (H3); nor did students report less feelings of intergroup forgiveness after viewing colour photos instead of black and white (H4). In addition, colour photos of WWII did not lead to lower levels of intergroup forgiveness through the mediating effects of less experienced temporal distance (H4a) and more negative emotional affect (H4b). Therefore, this study’s results only supported H1, indicating a strong effect of colour (vs. black and white) on perceived temporal distance. However, results should be taken into account cautiously because the 2 photos used in this study were not comparably evaluated on the temporal distance and negative affect scales (independent from condition) as indicated by paired-samples t-tests, and only self-report measures were used. Future research in the context of WWII should use an improved measure of intergroup forgiveness, as well as investigate whether different effects will be found under other research populations (e.g. Jews or elderly). Finally, it should be further investigated whether the current findings on temporal distance are truly caused by the forming of more abstract construals of black and white photos instead of colour photos, as stated by the CLT (Trope & Liberman, 2003).
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Construal Level Theory and Visual Perception 5
Temporal Distance 7 Social Closeness 7 Negative Affect 9 Intergroup Forgiveness 10 Method 13 Results 18 Discussion 25 References 35 List of Appendices 39
Appendix A – Stimuli used in the study 39
Appendix B - Temporal Distance questionnaire 41
Appendix C – Social Closeness questionnaire 41
Appendix D – Negative Affect questionnaire 42
The Influence of Colour Photos compared to Black and White Photos of World War II on Temporal Distance, Social Closeness, Negative Affect and Intergroup Forgiveness.
Our perceptual universe is a colourful place. There are only a few species that experience colour sensations, amongst which are humans (Gilbert & Schleuder, 1990). Colour plays a prominent part in the subjective experience of our visual world (Gegenfurtner & Rieger, 2000). However, our image of what the world looked like in the past does not result from our direct experience; it is based on stories, photo- and film material from the past. In such photos and films, black and white remains the most recognizable characteristic that indicates historical time (Li, 2012). Recently, applications such as Instagram have emerged and are widely used, which enable users to imitate photographic styles from the past by adding filters and effects such as sepia and black and white to photos. Whereas this trend in adding filters gives photos a nostalgic, vintage appearance (Chandler & Livingston, 2012), a trend in the opposed direction has also emerged, i.e. digitally colourizing historical black and white photos. This relative new technique of adding colours to originally black and white photos promises to bring your old photos back to the present life. It would be interesting to examine whether we do indeed perceive these colourized photos differently if we see them in colour instead of black and white, as well as whether colour has different effects than black and white on our subjective perception and evaluation of such historical photos.
A recent study by Spiers (2014) addressed this issue. Her study showed that participants assigned older dates (i.e. more temporal distance) to historical photos that were viewed in black and white compared to the same photos presented in colour. In a second study, Spiers (2014) found that colour photos of orphans evoked more intense reported emotional reactions than did the same photos in black and white. Furthermore, the study indicated that students who had seen colour photos of orphans donated more money to an organization assisting orphans (amount of donation
being a measure of experienced social closeness), as opposed to students who had seen these photos in black and white (Spiers, 2014).
These findings suggest that colourized photos induce stronger perceptions of closeness (both in temporal- and social terms) as well as greater emotional impact. Although the photos that Spiers (2014) used in her study were historical, participants could not know when exactly the events on the photos took place in time. Will the same effects be found with black and white or colour photos of historical events that have a specific date assigned to them, an event such as the Second World War (WWII) for example? When people are presented with pictures of WWII (either in black and white or in colour) and are subsequently asked how temporally distant these photos seem, possible differences in perceived temporal distance will clearly be an effect of colour (vs. black and white) instead of a judgment of the actual age of what is shown on the photo.
WWII has been a significant, severe, and highly emotional event in the world’s history, its date is commonly known, a lot of museums exist about this war and it is still one of the main subjects being taught in history lessons on high schools. Mostly old photo- and film material is being used to illustrate what life was like back then. Would it change the way we think and feel about the Holocaust, the Germans, the victims, and the lessons we have learned from the past, if we look at digitally coloured photos instead of the original black and white photos? If so, this would have clear societal implications. Memorial cites, monuments, and museums such as the Anne Frank Museum could use this knowledge to enhance the connectedness and identification their visitors feel towards and with such historical events. Moreover, history education books could influence the way history feels to students, aiming to bring the past closer, strengthening students’ interest and motivation, stimulate learning and enhancing heritage.
The present study investigates whether digitally coloured photos depicting clear WWII scenes are evaluated differently from the same photos in black and white. Building on the Construal Level Theory (CLT; Trope & Liberman, 2003), this study partly aims to replicate Spiers’ (2014)
findings on colour vs. black and white photos on perceived temporal distance, social closeness, and emotional intensity, with the important difference that this study uses photos of a historical event from a specific period of time. In addition, since WWII was a highly negative emotional event associated with lots of negative emotions, such as feelings of fear, loss, and anger, this study is the first to examine whether colour possibly also has an effect of the feelings of forgiveness towards Germans, considering their role in WWII.
Construal Level Theory and Visual Perception
The main framework for the current study is the CLT (Trope & Liberman, 2003). According to the CLT, the mental construals that we form of more distant objects are more abstract than those that we form of close objects (Trope & Liberman, 2003). “Distant” and “close” in this sense refer to the perceived psychological distance to the objects. Psychological distance is a subjective
experience of how far away something is perceived from the self, here and now (Trope & Liberman, 2010), and consists of four dimensions. The temporal dimension relates to the perceived distance in time from the object to the perceiver. The spatial dimension relates to the perceived spatial distance between the object and the perceiver. The social dimension constitutes how distant a social object is from the perceiver’s self. Finally, the fourth dimension relates to hypotheticality, i.e. how likely the object is to exist or the target event to happen (Liberman, Trope, & Stephan, 2007). Conform the CLT, abstract (i.e. high-level) construals are formed of psychologically distant events and consist of global, essential, and decontextualized features. High-level construals are relatively simple
representations. Conversely, concrete (i.e. lower-level) construals are formed of psychologically close events, consisting of more contextual and subordinate details, which are relatively specific representations (Trope & Liberman, 2003).
A study by Steidle, Werth, and Hanke (2011) examined the relation between construal level, psychological distance and visual perception. Visual perception in light allows us to detect details
and gather a lot of information on objects on which we focus. The cone photoreceptors in our fovea allow us to perceive colours and other details in a highly defined way by providing information about wavelengths (Steidle et al., 2011). However, cones require a certain amount of light and do not function in the dark. Therefore, in the dark we almost entirely have to rely on our rod cells for visual perception, which are unable to distinguish colour and are used in peripheral vision, resulting in a more holistic, black and white impression of the world (Preim & Dachselt, 2010; as cited in Steidle et al., 2011). Consequently, we can only detect simple structures like contours in the dark, so we pay attention to the whole figure, whereas under light conditions we can zoom in and pay attention to details, such as colour (Steidle et al., 2011).
Given the above, Steidle et al. (2011) expected that visual perception in the dark would trigger a more global and conceptual processing style than brightness, and would therefore more strongly be associated with high-level construals as opposed to low-level construals. In their first study, they found that participants who were sitting in a dimly lit workplace solved more analogies (which require a more global conceptual processing style to solve) than participants who were sitting in a brightly lit workplace, indicating that darkness did indeed trigger a global processing style. In a second study, Steidle et al. (2011) found that participants were faster when they had to pair darkness-related words to category-related words (i.e. high-level construal) than when they had to pair darkness-related words to exemplar-related words (i.e. low-level construal). Darkness was thus implicitly associated with high-level construal. Finally, they demonstrated that participants were faster in pairing darkness-related words to psychological distant objects (i.e. for all dimensions of psychological distance) than they were in pairing darkness-related words to psychological close objects (Steidle et al., 2011). These findings demonstrate that less light in vision influences visual perception, and that darker vision is associated with more abstract, high-level construals and psychological distance. This in line with recent findings by Spiers (2014) which indicated a clear
effect of type of photo (colour vs. black and white) on temporal distance, emotional intensity and social closeness.
Temporal Distance
Much of the research that has demonstrated the predictions of CLT has focussed on the temporal distance dimension of psychological distance. For example, Liberman & Trope (1998, study 1) found that the greater the temporal distance of an event, the more abstract construals (i.e. high-level) were formed of the event. Participants had to imagine themselves engaging in various activities (e.g. ‘reading a science fiction book’) either in the near future (i.e. ‘tomorrow’) or the distant future (i.e. ‘some time next year’). Next, they had to give a description of the activities. Their descriptions were then classified as either being high-level descriptions (e.g. ‘broadening my horizons’) or low-level descriptions (e.g. ‘flipping pages’). Their study revealed that participants gave more high-level descriptions in the distant-future condition compared to the near-future condition and that the reverse was true for low-level descriptions of the activities (Liberman & Trope, 1998). Building on the assumptions of CLT and research such as that of Steindle et al. (2011) and Spiers (2014), the current paper aims to replicate Spiers’ findings of colour (vs. black and white) on perceived temporal distance, however with the important note that this study uses photos from a historical event that has a specific period of time assigned to it. Therefore this study will examine more strongly the effect of colour (vs. black and white) on perceived temporal distance.
H1: Participants will report less temporal distance towards people depicted in colour photos of WWII compared to the same photos in black and white.
Social Closeness
Level of construal is thus related to temporal distance (Trope & Liberman, 2003), in which temporal distant evens are represented by more abstract construals and temporally near events are
represented by more concrete construals (Rim, Uleman, & Trope, 2009). In fact, this seems to be true for all dimensions of psychological distance. For example, Bar-Anan, Liberman, and Trope (2006) tested whether there was a direct, automatic mentally association between all four
dimensions of psychological distance and level of construal. Relying on CLT they expected that participants would be faster in pairing words such as ‘year 2525’, ‘there’, ‘they’, and ‘fiction’ (indicating distance on the temporal, spatial, social and hypothetical dimensions of psychological distance) with words that indicated abstractness (e.g. ‘categories’, or ‘values’). Conversely, it was expected that participants would be faster in pairing words indicating psychological closeness (i.e. ‘now, ‘here’, ‘me’, and ‘real’) with words that indicated concreteness (e.g. ‘items’ and ‘details’). Their research revealed that level of construal is indeed automatically associated with all four dimensions of psychological distance (Bar-Anan et al., 2006; Liberman & Förster, 2009).
According to Stephan, Liberman, and Trope (2011), the four dimensions of psychological distance are not only mentally associated (as indicated by the study of Bar-Anan et al., 2006) but do actually affect each other. Stephan and colleagues examined the effect of temporal distance on the social distance dimension and found that when an anticipated interaction with a person was moved further into the future (i.e. more temporal distance), participants perceived this person as more socially distant as well (Stephan et al., 2011). Their findings revealed that distancing a stimulus on one dimension made the stimulus seem more distant on another dimension too. In sum: more abstract construals are formed of psychological distant objects or events, and more concrete
construals are formed of psychological close objects or events, whereby the different dimensions of psychological distance are interrelated.
Given that the four aspects of psychological distance are interrelated, this means that when black and white photos are perceived as temporally more distant (H1), this should also affect the social, spatial and hypothetical dimension of the perceived psychological distance from photos. Although Spiers (2014) demonstrated that colour photos as opposed to black and white photos
indeed led to a higher degree of a behavioural social closeness measure (i.e. donations, which was not framed as being part of the study, therefore seen as an indication of ‘real’ social closeness), she did not find that colour photos led to higher levels of subjectively reported social closeness. A possible explanation for this finding is that the higher degree of donations in the colour condition (compared to the black and white condition) was caused by other factors influencing the willingness to donate, and not by feelings of social closeness per se (Spiers, 2014). It is also possible that social desirability in answering the survey was operating, as participants wanted to show that they could relate to the orphans on the photos, regardless of which condition they were in. However, relying on findings by Stephan et al. (2011), it can still be expected that colour photos of WWII lead to more feelings of social closeness than black and white photos. The current research examines this issue, thereby aiming to gain a better understanding of Spiers’ findings.
H2: Participants will report higher levels of social closeness towards people depicted in colour photos of WWII compared to black and white.
Negative Affect
Given that psychological distance is the subjective experience of how far away something is perceived from the self, here and now (Trope & Liberman, 2010), it seems reasonable that the psychological distance of a stimulus is related to the emotional intensity of the stimulus. Emotional intensity is the degree to which people experience positive or negative feelings (Russell, 1980). Davis, Gross, and Oschner (2011) addressed this issue: they examined whether and how imagined psychological distance connects to emotional experience and emotional intensity. In three of their studies, negative scenes were experienced less negative and emotionally arousing when participants imagined those scenes moving away from themselves (i.e. more psychological distance in the spatial dimension), and the opposite when participants imagined the scenes moving towards them (Davis et al., 2011). These findings are in line with earlier research on this topic by Williams and
Bargh (2008), who demonstrated that participants who were primed with spatial distance (vs. closeness) reported greater enjoyment of a story depicting embarrassment (study 1) and less negative affect after reading a violent story (study 2). Moreover, they found that participants
reported weaker emotional attachments to evaluative targets that were a primary source of affect (i.e. participants’ family and hometown), after being primed with spatial distance (study 4). These
results point out that feelings of distance affect the emotional intensity of stimuli (Williams & Bargh, 2008; Spiers, 2014).
Given that less psychological distance is construed as more concrete and brings a stronger emotional response (Trope & Liberman, 2003; Williams & Bargh, 2008), it is expected that colour photos will yield stronger emotional responses than black and white photos. Most recently, Spiers (2014) demonstrated that participants reported lower levels on an emotional intensity scale when viewing black and white photos as opposed to colour photos. The current research will only measure the intensity of the experienced negative emotions, given that the stimuli of this study are photos of WWII, which has been a highly negative emotional event.
H3: People viewing photos of WWII in colour will report higher levels of negative affect than people that view the same photos in black and white.
Intergroup Forgiveness
So far, we hypothesize that colour photos (compared to black and white) will bring WWII closer in temporal, social, and emotional terms. Although museums and history books could use colour to enhance the identification and connectedness people feel towards historical events, colour could also bring other, more negative elements from the past closer, especially in the severe and widely known injustice context of WWII (Peetz, Gunn, & Wilson, 2010). Although more than half a century has passed since the end of the Holocaust, WWII is still of significant relevance for the identities of both Germans and Jews (Wohl & Branscombe, 2005). History has taught us that the
negative feelings that result from intergroup conflict remain long after the violence itself has
stopped (Wohl & Branscombe, 2005). In the context of WWII, Germans who were born after WWII clearly cannot be assigned any personal guilt for their nation’s role in the Holocaust. However, collective guilt may still be assigned to them based on the categorical association with their national group (Branscombe & Doosje, 2004).
Much research has been done on the effects of categorization on collective guilt assignment and intergroup forgiveness in this area. Branscombe and Doosje (2004) demonstrated that the reminder of a group’s history is important for understanding psychological responses of that group to current intergroup conflicts. They showed that when Jewish participants were reminded of the Holocaust, they assigned greater collective guilt to the Palestinians for their role in the current conflict and were less willing to forgive, than when they were not reminded of the Holocaust (Branscombe & Doosje, 2004).
Since it is expected that colour brings the past closer, the current study is the first to examine whether colour vs. black and white has an effect on reported levels of intergroup forgiveness
towards Germans, after viewing photos depicting clear WWII scenes.
H4: People viewing colour photos of WWII will report lower levels of intergroup forgiveness towards Germans compared to people viewing the same photos in black and white.
Furthermore, we suggest that the expected effect of type of photo on intergroup forgiveness (H4) is mediated by both the perceived temporal distance and negative emotional intensity of the photos. Depending on the perceived temporal distance of an event, the event can feel closer or further away in time. Forgiveness becomes more likely to occur as time between the harmful event and the person increases (Wohl & McGrath, 2007), therefore temporal distance is expected to indirectly affect the effect of colour (vs. black and white) on intergroup forgiveness. Moreover, a forgiving state entails an effort to bring anger and other negative emotions to an end, and replace them with positive thoughts, feelings, and actions (Baumeister, Exline, & Sommer, 1998), whereas
an unforgiving state is related to more intense, higher aroused negative feelings (VanOyen-Witvliet, Ludwig, & Vander Laan, 2001). For example, VanOyen-Witvliet et al. (2001) showed that when participants were prompted with an autobiographical forgiveness-related imagery, they reported feeling more negative, aroused, angry, and sad in the unforgiving imagery condition (in which they had to rehearse the hurt and had to harbour a grudge), compared to the forgiving imagery condition. Therefore, we suggest that higher levels of experienced negative emotions will lead people to being less willing to forgive Germans for what they did in the context of WWII.
H4a and H4b: Colour (vs. black and white) has an effect on reported levels of intergroup forgiveness through the mediating effects of experienced temporal distance and negative affect, in which reported levels of intergroup forgiveness in the colour condition are lower because people experience less temporal distance (H4a) and more negative affect (H4b) compared to people in the black and white condition.
In sum, the current paper aims to examine whether colour photos of WWII compared to the same photos in black and white are evaluated differently in terms of temporal distance, social closeness, negative affect, and intergroup forgiveness. The target group for this study are students. It is interesting to examine these effects under young adults because of the possible implications for history education, as mentioned earlier. Moreover, most students have not been in direct contact with the War themselves. Consequently, the emotional impact of photos from the War and their feelings of forgiveness towards Germans are based on how they mentally construe and subsequently evaluate such events and not on possible personal experiences with this war.
Method Participants
For this study students from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) were recruited, aged 18 years or older. They were approached and asked to participate in this study via the UvA website, on which students could choose to participate in this study and subsequently gain 0.25 credits for their participation. Additional participants have been acquired through requests on social media (i.e. Facebook), stating that participants were required for research purposes, preferably students, aged 18 years or older. Half of the total number of participants received the questionnaire with two black and white photos of WWII; the other half received the questionnaire with the same two photos in colour. Participants were randomly assigned to either the black and white or the colour condition in a between-subjects design with type of photos as independent variable and temporal distance, social closeness, negative affect, and intergroup forgiveness as dependent variables.
Materials
Type of photo manipulation. Type of photo was manipulated by representing two photos of clear WWII scenes, either in colour (i.e. colour condition) or in black and white (i.e. black and white condition). These two photos were selected because on both of them, people are clearly depicted; photo 1 showing people in a razzia on the street, photo 2 showing two kids, smiling towards the camera with a Jewish star on their jackets (see Appendix A). The photos are property of De Hollandsche Schouwburg (Amsterdam); they were originally black and white and were later colourized by a digital artist using Photoshop. Permission of De Hollandsche Schouwburg has been obtained to use these two photos for research purposes.
After both photos separately, participants were first asked to shortly describe what they saw on the photo (open question). Then questions on temporal distance, social closeness, and negative
affect followed after both photos, and questions on intergroup forgiveness followed when both photos had already been seen. All questions were measured through self-report measures; see below.
Temporal Distance. Temporal distance was measured by 4 statements; all needed to be answered on a 7-point Likert-type answer scale (1= Strongly disagree, 7 = Strongly agree). The statements were respectively: 1) “It feels like this photo was taken a long time ago”, 2) “The photo depicts a scene which I feel took place took place fairly recently” (=reversed), 3) “The photo depicts a scene which took place a long time ago”, 4) “The event on this photo took place a long time ago” (see Appendix B).These 4 statements measuring temporal distance of the photos were asked after both photos, resulting in 8 items in total. The statements were based on the temporal distance scale that Spiers (2014; Study 1, scale 1) used. Cronbach’s alpha for the temporal distance scales was α = .89 for photo 1, and α = .88 for photo 2 (overall α = .93); this scale was therefore seen as reliable. The mean score on the 8 items was computed for each participant, in which higher mean scores indicated that the photos were seen as temporally more distant.The mean score on temporal distance items for the total sample was M= 4.87, SD= 1.21.
Social Closeness. Social closeness was operationalized through a measure consisting of 3 items, selected from the 14-item scale that Spiers (2014; Study II, scale 1) used. The questions were respectively: 1) “To what degree do you feel engaged with the people depicted on this photo?”, 2)“To what degree do you feel connected to the people depicted on this photo?”, 3) “To what degree can you imagine yourself in a similar situation as the people depicted on this photo?” (see Appendix C). This 3-item measure of social closeness was shown after both photos, each with a 7-point Likert scale (1= not at all, 7= very much), resulting in 6 items measuring social closeness in total. This scale turned out to be reliable: Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was α = .70 for photo 1, and α = .63 for photo 2 (overall α = .79). The mean score on the 6 items was computed for each participant, in which higher mean scores indicated greater feelings of social closeness towards the persons depicted on the photos. The mean on these items for the total sample was M= 3.63, SD= .92.
Negative Affect. The Positive And Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1998; Dutch version: Peeters, Ponds, & Vermeeren, 1996) was adapted such that it
measured the experienced negative affect from viewing photos of WWII, either in colour or in black and white, as did Spiers (2014; study II). The original PANAS scale covered 10 items measuring positive affect and 10 items measuring negative affect. Since this study will focus only on negative affect, as noted earlier, solely negative affect items were selected from the original PANAS scale, 6 in total. Participants were instructed to indicate the extent to which they felt these 6 negative
emotions after viewing the photos, again on a 7-point Likert scale (1= not at all, 7= very much). The selected negative affect items are: 1) ”This photo makes me angry”, 2) “This photo makes me sad”, 3) “This photo makes me upset”, 4) “This photo moves me”, 5) “This photo makes me scared”, and 6) “This photo makes me mad” (see Appendix D). These 6 items were shown after both photos, resulting in a total of 12 items measuring negative affect. Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was α = .93 for photo 1, and α = .90 for photo 2 (overall α = .93). The mean score on the 12 items was computed for each participant, in which higher mean scores indicated stronger feelings of negative affect towards the two photos and the people depicted on it. The mean on these items for the total sample was M= 4.18, SD= 1.03.
Intergroup Forgiveness. Questions measuring intergroup forgiveness were asked after both photos were already viewed, as part of the exit interview. The 4 statements measuring intergroup forgiveness were derived from the intergroup forgiveness scale that Noor, Brown, Gonzalez, Manzi, and Lewis (2008; study II) used, which consisted of 6 statements; 4 of them were selected for the present research. However, the word ‘misdeed’ from the original scale has been replaced with ‘the things that they did’, because ‘misdeed’ already holds a judgment, as Noor et al. (2008) fairly pointed out in their third study. Moreover, the word ‘Germans’ has been added to the question to make sure these questions apply to this particular context of study. The questions are respectively: 1) “I feel resentment towards Germans, for the things that they did during the Second World
War”(reversed), 2) ”I hold ill thoughts about Germans for the things that they did during the Second World War” (reversed), 3) “I am able to forgive Germans for the things that they did during the Second World War”, 4) “I try not to hold a grudge against Germans for the things that they have done during the Second World War” (based on Takaku, Weiner, & Ohbuchi, 2001; as cited in Noor et al., 2008). Questions were answered on a 7-point Likert scale (1= Strongly disagree, 7= Strongly agree). Due to item 4, the initial overall Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was very low (α = .27), therefore this item was deleted for further analyses, resulting in a 3-item measure of intergroup forgiveness which formed a reliable scale (α = .64).The mean score on the total of 3 items was computed for each participant, in which higher mean scores indicated stronger feelings of forgiveness. The mean for the total sample was M = 4.66, SD = .93.
Exit Interview. A self-report measure was used to collect data on demographic information of the participants such as gender, age, nationality, education, and religion. Moreover, participants’ baseline connection with WWII was measured using 2 questions, since this could have affected their evaluation of the photos. In the end, participants were asked about the usefulness of their given answers and their idea about the possible purpose of the study, such that the results of people who’s answers were not serious or who knew the exact purpose of the study could be deleted from further analysis.
Procedure
An anonymous, digital survey was developed using Qualtrics and a link to the survey was distributed among those that had agreed to participate in the study by e-mail via the website of the UvA and through requests on social media. Participants were asked to voluntarily participate in the study by completing the digital questionnaire (which took approximately 10 minutes), which they could access by clicking on the link. After clicking on the link, the survey started. Participants first had to read and approve the informed consent in which they were told that the purpose of the study
was to examine how people look at historical events, as a cover story for the real purpose of the study. After the instructions, participants were shown the two photos on the computer screen; with after each photo 14 question items that they had to answer, including questions measuring temporal distance, social closeness, and negative affect; see ‘materials’. In the end of the study participants had to answer the 4 questions measuring intergroup forgiveness, as well as to fill in the exit interview. In the end of the survey participants were debriefed and thanked for their participation. Analyses of Data
SPSS, version 20.0 was used to perform analyses. Preliminary analyses were computed to compare demographic variables (gender, age, education, religion, and personal involvement) between the two conditions (colour vs. black and white), to check possible differences between conditions at the start of the study. Independent samples t-tests were used to reveal possible differences on demographic variables that have continuous values (e.g. age and personal
involvement), and chi-square tests were used for variables with categorical values (e.g. school level, gender, religion). Moreover, preliminary analyses investigated whether photo 1 and photo 2 were evaluated differently in terms of temporal distance, social closeness, and negative affect;
independent from condition. Even when analyses would reveal that the photos were evaluated differently in terms of temporal distance and negative affect, the overall mean scores on temporal distance, social closeness, and negative affect would still be used for main analyses.
For the purpose of testing hypotheses 1-4, multivariate analyses of variances (MANOVA’s) were conducted on the overall mean scores on temporal distance, social closeness, negative affect, and intergroup forgiveness. Moreover, the mediation effects as hypothesized by H4a and H4b would be investigated using the Sobel Test; however this was only done when results would indicate that there could indeed be a mediation effect. When there would be no total indirect effect of condition on intergroup forgiveness found (H4), but there would be a significant effect of condition on one of the hypothesized mediators (i.e. temporal distance and negative affect),
regression analyses would be done to further investigate the specific indirect effects of these variables. Since it is possible to find specific indirect effects to be significant even when the total indirect effect is not significant (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). Furthermore, three repeated measures analyses of variances (ANOVA’s) mixed-designs were conducted to examine whether photo 1 and photo 2 were evaluated differently on temporal distance, social closeness and negative affect between conditions. All assumptions for the tests were met, unless stated differently. Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between the two questions concerning personal involvement with the War, r = .40, p (one-tailed) < 0.01. Therefore, a mean score was calculated for these two questions together for further analysis. The significance level was set at p < .05 throughout all analyses and effect sizes were measured with partial eta squared (ηp²).
A required sample size of 112 participants was estimated, using the software G*Power 3.1.7 to calculate proper sample size (p=0.95, α= 0.05).In order to answer the main research questions the mean scores on the scales were calculated. List wise deletion was used in case of inconsistencies (e.g. participant’s age <18, or in case of response times more than 3.5 standard deviations from the mean response time; time was recorded by Qualtrics). There were no missing values; since
Qualtrics was set in such a way that participants could not proceed before answering the question. As stated above, all scales proved to be reliable, however for the intergroup forgiveness scale item 4 (“I try not to hold a grudge against Germans for the things that they have done during the Second World War”) was removed from further analysis. Normality was checked with Kurtosis and Skewness tests. The main outcome variables were all normally distributed.
Results Research population
In total out of 160 participants that completed the study 40 had to be excluded, including 17 participants in the black and white condition and 23 in the colour condition. Of the 40 participants
that were excluded from analysis, 29 participants had only started the survey but failed to complete it; they had finished less than half of the survey and were therefore removed from further analyses. Moreover, 3 were excluded because their response time was more than 3.5 standard deviations above the average (M = 12.04, SD = 12.17); 4 because they reported being younger than 18 years old; 2 because they had guessed the goal of the study exactly right; 1 because he answered with “not serious” on the question about the seriousness of his answers item in the exit interview, and 1 because of reported colourblindness.
Therefore, further analysis was made based on 120 participants: 63 in the black and white condition and 57 in the colour condition.
Demographic Variables
Table 1 presents an overview of the demographic and general characteristics of the sample at baseline. The mean age of the participants (75.0% female, 25.0% male) was 22.54 years (SD = 4.76). There was no significant association found between condition and gender, χ² (1) = .10, p = .75. Moreover, no relationship was found between condition and level of education, χ² (4) = 4,06, p = .40, and condition and religion, χ² (4) = 2,25, p = .69.
Two independent samples t-tests revealed that there were no significant differences between condition and age, t(118)= .38, p = .83, and condition and the mean score on personal involvement, t(118)= -1.55, p = .47. These results suggest that the two groups (i.e. the colour condition and the black and white condition) were similar at the start of the study.
Table 1
Baseline Demographic Characteristics of Study Sample Black & White
(n = 63) Colour (n = 57) Total (n =120) Age M (SD) 22.70 (4.98) 22.37 (4.54) 22.54 (4.76)
Gender Men Women Education High School MBO HBO WO (BA/MA) Other 15 48 26 2 1 31 3 15 42 22 2 3 30 0 30 90 48 4 4 61 3 Religion No Religion Christian Islam Buddhism Other 49 10 1 2 1 48 7 1 0 1 97 17 2 2 2 Personal Involvement M (SD) 3.50 (1.11) 3.82 (1.19) 3.65 (1.15)
Moreover, the relationship between gender and the main variables of interest (i.e. temporal distance, social closeness, negative affect, and intergroup forgiveness) was investigated. Four independent-samples t-tests indicated that there were no significant differences in scores on these dependent variables between males and females, respectively: t(118) = .14, p = .89 for temporal distance; t(118) = .49, p = .63 for social closeness; t(118) = -1.72, p = .09 for negative affect; and t(118) = .35 p = .73 for intergroup forgiveness.
In addition, Table 2 presents the inter-correlations of the main variables of interest.
Table 2
Inter-correlations of Study Variables
1. Temporal Distance 2. Negative Affect 3. Social Closeness 4. Intergroup Forgiveness -- - .22* - .31** - .01 -- .59** - .17 -- - .15 -- * p < .05 (2-tailed) ** p < .01 (2-tailed)
Within-subjects Comparison of Scores on Photo 1 and Photo 2 Independent from Condition Before examining the possible condition effects, paired samples t-tests have been used to examine whether participants possibly evaluated the two photos (photo 1 and photo 2) differently from each other on the temporal distance-, social closeness-, and negative affect-items. Table 3 presents the means and standard deviations on each of the dependent variables across the two photos. Results indicated no significant differences between the mean scores on social closeness for photo 1 and photo 2, t(119) = .40, p = .69. However, significant differences were found between the temporal distance- and negative affect- evaluations of photo 1 and 2. In terms of temporal distance, photo 1 was evaluated as significantly less temporally distant as opposed to photo 2: t(119) = -2.05, p < .05. In terms of negative affect, photo 1 was evaluated as more negatively emotional intense than photo 2: t(119) = 7.70, p < .01.
Table 3
Means and Standard Deviations for Scores on Temporal Distance, Social Closeness, and Negative Affect between the 2 Photos, Independent from Condition
Photo 1 Photo 2 Variable M SD M SD Temporal distance Social Closeness Negative Affect 4.78a 3.61 4.54c 1.31 1.05 1.09 4.94b 3.60 3.79d 1.27 .98 1.23
Note. Averages in the same row with different subscripts (a, b, c, d) differ significantly from each other, p < .05
Main analyses
MANOVA analyses revealed a significant multivariate main effect of condition, using Pillai’s trace, V = .103, F (4,115) = 3.32, p < 0.05, ηp² = .103. As was predicted with H1, the univariate F test showed that there was a significant main effect for condition on the reported temporal distance, F (1, 118) = 13,55 p < .01, ηp² = .10. Participants that had seen colour photos evaluated those photos significantly as less temporally distant (M = 4.45, SD = 1.28) than
participants who had seen the same photos in black and white (M = 5.23, SD = 1.03). However, no significant main effect was found for condition on social closeness, F (1, 118) = 1.02, p = .32, neither for negative affect, F (1, 118) = .29, p = .59, nor for intergroup forgiveness, F (1, 118) = .01, p = .94. Participants in the colour condition did not evaluate the photos as more socially close (M = 3.69, SD = .97), more negatively emotional intense (M = 4.22, SD = 1.14), or reported less feelings of forgiveness (M = 4.69, SD = .91), than those in the black and white condition (M = 3.52, SD = .85 for social closeness; M = 4.22, SD = 1.14 for negative affect; and M = 4.67, SD = .95 for intergroup forgiveness). Given these results, hypothesis 1 was supported; hypotheses 2, 3 and 4 were not. Moreover, the total indirect effect of condition on intergroup forgiveness was not
significant, and the specific indirect effect of condition on negative effect was not significant either; therefore, hypothesis H4b was rejected as well.
In terms of H4a, the total indirect effect of condition on intergroup forgiveness was not significant, but the specific indirect effect of condition on temporal distance was. Although a negative relationship between temporal distance and forgiveness was not what was expected with H4a, one such direction might still indicate a mediation effect of condition on intergroup
forgiveness throughtemporal distance, due to the possibility of a model that contains both a
mediation effect and a suppression effect (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). Therefore, regression analyses further investigated the specific indirect effect of temporal distance on intergroup forgiveness. Results indicated that temporal distance did not significantly predict scores on intergroup
forgiveness (β= -.01, t(118) = -.10, p = .92); therefore H4a was rejected as well. Table 4 shows the specific indirect effects between condition, temporal distance and intergroup forgiveness. Moreover, figure 1 shows the unstandardized path coefficients of the specific indirect effects of condition, temporal distance and intergroup forgiveness.
Table 4
Effects of Temporal Distance on the relationship between Condition and Intergroup Forgiveness
Predictor Outcome B R R2 SE P
Condition Intergroup Forgiveness .01 .01 .00 .18 .96
Condition Temporal Distance - .78 .32 .10 .21 .00*
Condition & Temporal Distance
Intergroup Forgiveness - .01 .01 .00 .07 .92
* p < .05
Figure 1
Unstandardized path coefficients for the relationship between Condition, Temporal Distance and Intergroup Forgiveness
* p < .05
Condition (Colour vs.
Black and White) Forgiveness Intergroup
Temporal Distance
B = - .01 B = -.78*
Explorative Analyses
Three repeated measures analyses of variances (ANOVA’s) mixed-designs were conducted to examine whether photo 1 and photo 2 were possibly evaluated differently on temporal distance, social closeness and negative affect between conditions: with photo (photo 1, photo 2) as the within-subjects independent variable, condition as the between-subjects independent variable, and mean scores on temporal distance, social closeness, and negative affect as dependent variables. Results indicated that there were no differences between conditions in how photo 1 was evaluated relative to photo 2: not on temporal distance (F (1,118) = .00, p = .98), not on social closeness (F (1,118) = 2.2, p = .14), and neither on negative affect (F (1,118) = .26, p = .61). The means and standard deviations are presented in Table 5.
Table 5
Means and Standard Deviations for Temporal Distance (1), Social Closeness (2), and Negative Affect (3) across the two Different Photos, between Conditions
Black & White (N = 63) Colour (N = 57) Total (N = 120) Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 1 Photo 2
Var. M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD 1 2 3 5.15 3.48 4.52 1.12 1.00 .94 5.31 3.57 3.71 1.02 .92 1.17 4.37 3.77 4.57 1.40 1.09 1.23 4.53 3.61 3.87 1.39 1.04 1.30 4.78 3.62 4.54 1.31 1.05 1.09 4.94 3.59 3.79 1.27 .98 1.23
Moreover, a MANOVA was conducted to check whether gender possibly had an effect on the temporal distance, social closeness, and negative affect scores for each photo separately
independent from condition. Results revealed that there was a significant multivariate main effect of gender, using Pillai’s trace, V = .17, F (6,113) = 3,74, p < 0.01, ηp2 = .17. The univariate F tests showed that there was a significant main effect for gender on the mean score on negative affect only
for photo 1, F (1, 118) = 5,05, p < .05, ηp² = .04. Across conditions, women evaluated photo 1 as more negatively emotional intense (M =4.67, SD = 1.10) than men (M =4.16, SD = .94).
Discussion
This study aimed to examine the effect of type of WWII photos (colour vs. black and white) on the evaluation of these photos. We investigated whether colour photos (compared to black and white) are evaluated as less temporally distant (H1), more socially close (H2), yield more negative affect (H3), and whether colour leads to less feelings of forgiveness towards Germans (H4). More specifically, it was hypothesized that less temporal distance (H4a) and more negative affect (H4b) would lead to less reported feelings of forgiveness towards Germans through mediation. To conclude, this study’s results have confirmed only the first hypothesis, meaning that colour photos of WWII were evaluated as significantly less temporal distant compared to the photos in black and white. Given that the photos used in this study had a specific date assigned to them, found effects are not attributable to a judgment of the actual age of what is shown on the photo, but a strong indication of the effect of colour vs. black and white, which is in line with the assumptions of CLT (Trope & Liberman, 2003).
Even though no significant effect of condition on social closeness, negative affect, and intergroup forgiveness was found, correlation analyses still provide some evidence in favour of this study’s expectations. A significant correlation was found between temporal distance and social closeness (r = -.31, p < .01): less experienced temporal distance was associated with higher levels of social closeness, which is in line with earlier studies (Bar-Anan et al., 2006; Liberman & Förster, 2009) and predictions of CLT (Trope & Liberman, 2003). Moreover, there was a significant negative correlation between temporal distance and experienced negative affect (r = -.22, p < .05). The saying of ‘time heals all wounds’ (Wohl & McGrath, 2007) possibly applies here, in that higher levels of temporal distance were associated with lower levels of experienced negative affect.
Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was found between negative affect and social closeness (r = .59, p < .01), indicating that more feelings of social closeness were associated with higher levels of experienced negative affect. This is in line with predictions and earlier studies such as that of Davis et al. (2011). Finally, negative affect and intergroup forgiveness were almost significantly negatively correlated (r = -.17, p = .06); indeed indicating the expected negative relation between experienced negative affect and feelings of forgiveness. It can be due to several reasons that no effect of type of photo (i.e. colour vs. black and white) was found on social closeness, negative affect and intergroup forgiveness, which will now be further addressed.
H2 was not supported by the present findings, meaning that colour photos of WWII were not evaluated differently than black and white photos in terms of social closeness. Spiers (2014) did not find any effects of type of photo on the self-reported measure of social closeness either, but she did find an effect of type of photo on a behavioural measure of social closeness (i.e. amount of donation). A possible explanation of the fact that no significant effect of condition on reported social closeness was found is that the effect that Spiers (2014) found of colour on the behavioural measure of social closeness (study II), was not an effect of actual higher feelings of social closeness, but might have been due to other factors influencing the willingness to donate (Spiers, 2014).
Another explanation could be that an explicit measure of social closeness is not sensitive enough to detect changes on this construct. Amount of donation, which is a more implicit measure of social closeness, could be more sensitive in detecting changes on this construct, since such implicit measures do not require both participants’ motivation as well as the ability to report attitudes and beliefs accurately (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).
H3 was not supported in this study either, meaning that there were no significant differences between conditions in how much negative affect participants experienced from viewing the photos. Analyses revealed that the two photos that were used for this study were evaluated significantly different from each other in terms of negative affect, in that participants reported significantly more
negative affect from viewing photo 1 (i.e. the razzia on the street) than from photo 2 (i.e. the two Jewish children); this effect was the same for both conditions. A possible explanation for this can be found in participants’ answers to the open question ‘Give a short description of what you see on this photo’. It is clear that all participants mention the negative content of the first photo, with words such as ‘razzia’, ‘soldiers’, ‘weapons’, ‘fear’, and ‘hostages’. However, participants described photo 2 by less negative -, and more neutral or even positive words, e.g. ‘I see two smiling kids with a Jewish star on their clothes’, ‘a Jewish brother and a sister, they seem happy’, and ‘two happy toddlers’. These differences in how both photos (independent from condition) were evaluated were unintended; we expected that the picture of the two kids with the Jewish star on their jackets, smiling, not aware of the meaning of the star, would be seen as highly emotional negative as the razzia on the street.
That no effect of condition on negative affect was found could be explained by the fact that the content of the two photos were rated differently in terms of negative affect: the content of a photo seems to have a strong influence on the subsequent evaluation of the photo. Winn and Everett (1979) found that in general, colour pictures were rated as more appealing than their black and white equivalents. However, this was only true for pictures with a content that was evaluated as positive; for pictures that were evaluated as more negative, colour only enhanced the unpleasantness of the pictures. These findings suggest that picture content influences affective ratings and that colour only enhances these ratings. Given that the contents of photos 1 and 2 were evaluated significantly different from each other in terms of negative affect, and given that picture content influences affective ratings (Winn & Everett, 1979), it might well be that this study failed to yield any significant effects of condition on negative affect due to the difference between the two photos in experienced negative affect. Even though no effect was found either when the effect of condition on negative affect for both photos separately was examined, it might well be that more photos are needed, all with similar affective contents, to yield significant effects of colour vs. black and white
on subsequent affective ratings, especially because Spiers (2014) did find that colour photos led to higher levels of reported emotional intensity. Therefore, it seems that the lack of a significant effect of condition on negative affect in this study is more probably due to the small amount of photos and therefore strong effect of their (ambiguous affective) contents, rather than the assumption that colour (vs. black and white) has no effect on experienced negative affect.
In terms of H4, this study was the first to measure reported levels of intergroup forgiveness after presenting people with colour vs. black and white photos of WWII. Moreover, H4a and H4b stated that colour photos would lead to higher levels of intergroup forgiveness through the
mediating causes of temporal distance and negative affect, in which less temporal distance and more negative affect would lead to less feelings of forgiveness towards Germans. Unfortunately, this study failed to yield significant effects. No effect of condition on intergroup forgiveness was found; neither did temporal distance and/or negative affect predict scores on intergroup forgiveness. Several possible explanations can be offered for these findings. First of all, Noor et al. (2008) pointed out that when a particular context is used in a study to examine intergroup forgiveness, it can be that the context in question already has an objective level of suffering which is easily determined and acknowledged, with little scope remaining for variations (Noor et al., 2008). The Holocaust might be such a context in which it is common knowledge how much the Jews have suffered in the War and that the Nazi-Germans were to blame for this, due to the huge societal impact of the War. This might explain the fact that no effects were found of condition on reported feelings of intergroup forgiveness.
A second explanation can be found in a possible ambiguous interpretation of the word ‘Germans’ in the intergroup forgiveness-items. There were two participants who explicitly noted through email at the end of the questionnaire that they found the questions about intergroup forgiveness confusing, in that they were not sure whether by ‘Germans’ was meant the Germans from the time of the War (i.e. Nazi-Germans) or Germans in general. Although these were only two
participants, it can be an indication of confusion that more participants might have experienced. When interpreted as the first, participants might have reported less forgiveness, for the things that the Nazi-Germans have done during the War are not easily forgiven. However, when interpreted as ‘Germans in general’, participants might have reported higher levels of forgiveness. Unfortunately, it was impossible to track down the scores of these two particular participants due to the anonymity of the survey respondents; therefore their scores could not be removed from analyses to see whether this would yield different effects. Future research should therefore use an improved intergroup forgiveness measure and these issues must be further addressed to gain a better understanding of the present findings.
H4a, which posited that the effect of condition on intergroup forgiveness would be mediated by temporal distance, was rejected. Results indicate that in the present study, condition did not only have no effect on intergroup forgiveness, and temporal distance did not only not significantly predict scores on intergroup forgiveness: correlation analyses did not even show the expected positive relation between temporal distance and intergroup forgiveness (r = -.01, p = .92). An obvious explanation would be here that temporal distance is not associated with feelings of forgiveness. However, we think a more plausible explanation is that the scale this study used to measure intergroup forgiveness was not an accurate or sufficient enough measure of feelings of forgiveness (see ‘limitations’), and that therefore no effects of condition on intergroup forgiveness, nor of temporal distance on intergroup forgiveness were found.
Furthermore, H4b, which stated that the effect of condition on intergroup forgiveness would be mediated by negative affect, was also rejected: negative affect did not significantly predict intergroup forgiveness. Analyses showed that negative affect was negatively correlated with scores on intergroup forgiveness, which is in line with predictions and findings such as that of VanOyen-Witvliet et al. (2001). However, Noor et al. (2008) also emphasized the role of positive emotions in forgiveness, such as trust and empathy: it is therefore possible that positive (instead of negative)
affect would be a predictor of feelings of forgiveness, and that negative affect is not a predictor, but rather results from less feelings of forgiveness. Future research should further address the effect of colour (vs. black and white) on experienced intergroup forgiveness and should measure both positive and negative affect, to gain more understanding in whether and how affect is related to feelings of forgiveness in this context.
Overall, based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that photos of WWII feel closer in time when depicted in colour compared to black and white. However, several limitations to this study need to be addressed.
Limitations
Sequence of Photos Not Counterbalanced. Since the sequence of the two photos was not counterbalanced, it is still unclear whether the differences between the two photos that were found on temporal distance and negative affect are due to the content of the photos or due to a possible sequence effect of the photos. It might well be that, given that photo 2 was evaluated as less negative emotional intense and this photo was always shown second, and given that the questions about intergroup forgiveness were always asked after photo 2, the (relatively lower) ratings of negative affect for photo 2 could have affected the subsequent ratings on intergroup forgiveness. Moreover, since the two photos were not presented in counterbalanced sequence, we are unable to say whether photo 1 (razzia) was evaluated as less temporally distant and more negatively
emotional intense due to the photo itself and its content, or due to other factors influencing its evaluation, e.g. primacy effect (Terry, 2005). It is possible that two photos were not enough to yield the expected effects, especially since the photos seemed to be evaluated differently even
independently from condition, and because the sequence of the two photos was not counterbalanced. For future research it is recommended that more photos are used and that they are presented in counterbalanced sequence.
Differences Between Photos. This study tested temporal distance, social closeness, and negative affect using 2 different photos, both on which people in a clear WWII scene were depicted. Additional analyses revealed that these two photos were evaluated significantly different from each other in terms of temporal distance and negative emotional affect, but not on social closeness (independent from condition). Photo 1 (i.e. the razzia on the street) was evaluated as significantly less temporal distant and more negatively emotional intense than photo 2 (i.e. the two Jewish children).The two photos used in this research (both in colour and black and white) were selected because they were thought of as having comparable contents: both depicting people in clear WWII scenes. Subsequently, it was not expected that participants would evaluate these photos differently in terms of negative emotional intensity or temporal distance and found differences between the photos as indicated by the additional analyses were therefore unintended. Future research should use photos that have been selected based on comparable contents in terms of the dependent variables in question, such that the effect of colour (vs. black and white) can more strongly be investigated.
Intergroup Forgiveness Scale. The fact that no significant effect of type of photo on feelings of forgiveness was found in the present study is more likely due to a poor measure of this construct rather than assuming that forgiveness is not implied. As stated above, there might have been some confusion by the word ‘German’ in the items of this scale. Furthermore, the present intergroup forgiveness scale was derived from Noor et al. (2008), who used this scale in research to measure feelings of forgiveness between clear anti- and pro groups. In the present study there was no clear distinction between such two groups: on the one side there were “Germans” in WWII, who are indeed a clear distinguished group. However, the ‘other’ group was less clearly marked in this study (i.e. Dutch participants), especially since the participants of the current study were students (mean age: 22.5) who have not been in direct contact with the War. Possibly stronger effects will be found on this construct when there is a clear distinction of two separate groups (e.g. feelings of
forgiveness towards Germans measured under elderly who have lived through the War, or more specifically: under Jews).
Use of Self-report Measures. Another point that deserves attention is the sole use of self-report measures in this study. Self-self-report measures are not only susceptible to socially desirable answers; they also assume introspective capability of participants. Therefore, they might lack validity (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977) and results should therefore be taken into account cautiously.
Research Population. The research population of this study consisted partly of psychology students that were approached via the website of the UvA, and partly of participants that were acquired through requests on social media. Acquiring participants through Internet requests can have some limitations, such as the generalizability of the study results (Granello & Wheaton, 2004). Moreover, although preliminary analyses showed no significant differences between the study samples at baseline, there might have been a self-selective process in which only people who had particular interest in this research responded to the requests on social media; the participants that were acquired through social media participated in this study without getting a reward, as opposed to the 0.25 credits that UvA students received for completing the questionnaire.
Future research
Future research is desirable and necessary to learn more about the effects of coloured photos vs. black and white, especially of WWII. In future research, different contexts need to be studied, as well as the use of other, more implicit measures for social closeness and negative emotional affect (e.g. measures focussing more on actual behaviours rather than solely self-report measures). Moreover, future research should use an improved and more precise measure for intergroup forgiveness.
For future research on the effect of type of photo in the context of WWII, it is advised that feelings of forgiveness towards Germans are measured at the baseline of the study as well (before
photos either in colour or in black and white are viewed), to further investigate whether forgiveness towards Germans in the context of WWII has indeed more of an objective level with little scope remaining for variations (Noor et al., 2008) or whether type of photo (colour vs. black and white) has an effect on feelings of forgiveness.
Moreover, it seems that the content of the photos in question is of particular influence, in that it modulates the effect of type of photo (Winn & Everett, 1979; Detenber et al., 2000). Future studies must take the content of photos into careful consideration, such that the content of photos is controlled for when investigating the effect of colour vs. black and white.
Furthermore, as Detenber et al. (2000) fairly pointed out, future research needs to take into consideration if and how the influence of colour (compared to black and white) changes or
diminishes over time. Given that the technique of colourizing historical black and white photos is fairly new, it can be interesting to examine whether the found effect that colour leads to less experienced temporal distance possibly is only a short-term effect due to the ‘newness’ of this technique, or rather a long-lasting effect.
Finally, as Spiers (2014) already noted, future research should examine the effect of colour photos versus black and white on abstractness vs. concreteness, in order to gain more understanding whether the current findings on temporal distance are truly caused by forming more abstract
construals of black and white photos compared to colour photos, as stated by the CLT (Trope & Liberman, 2003).
Taking all of the above considerations into account, it is clear that more research is needed in the area of colour vs. black and white photos and how they are evaluated, to gain more
understanding of the effects of type of photos in several contexts, and to gain more insight under which contexts colour (vs. black and white) is more advantageous (Spiers, 2014). It should be interesting to examine the effect of colour vs. black and white photos of historical events in the future under young people (e.g. high school students) as well as under elderly (who have been in
direct contact with those historical events) to see whether different effects will be found. Moreover, research on the effect of colour vs. black and under high-school students should also investigate whether effect of type of photo has an effect on students’ motivation and learning.
In sum: This study found a strong effect of colour (vs. black and white) on perceived temporal distance of photos of WWII. Although no significant effects were found of colour (vs. black and white) on negative affect, social closeness, and intergroup forgiveness, previous research findings and the results of this study still give us reason enough reason to believe that colour has an effect on these constructs as well, given the findings of previous research and additional results (e.g. correlations) of the present research.Given the enormous societal impact of WWII and the fact that it is a subject still being taught in history lessons and widely represented in museums, movies, theatres etc. across countries, it should be clear that the practical implications of this study and future studies on this subject are of high importance. Photos of WWII that are used for education, museums, and in memorial cites, will seem closer in time when depicted in colour, which could lead students and visitors to think that this horrible war from the past was not that long ago after all.
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