magazine issue 8 2014 / Issue 22

Revisiting the past can make the present a better place: The psychological and social benefits of nostalgia

• written by Clay Routledge
• edited by Dylan Selterman

With the goal of answering this and related questions, about ten years ago, social psychologists began to systematically study the psychology nostalgia (see Routledge, Wildschut, Sedikides, & Juhl, 2013). The first task was to detail the experience of nostalgia. When people engage in nostalgia, what are they thinking about? What emotions are present in nostalgic memories? To answer these questions, Wildschut and colleagues (2006) content-analyzed people’s written accounts of nostalgic memories. Results from this work indicate that nostalgic memories are good memories. These memories tend to be focused on personally cherished life experiences shared with close others (e.g., family functions, vacations, holidays, weddings, graduations). Further, nostalgic memories contain more positive than negative emotional references. When negative feelings are present in these memories, they tend give way to an emotionally positive conclusion. For example, a person’s nostalgia may involve sadness about missing friends from college she no longer gets to spend time with but will likely also include feelings of gratitude for the time shared with these individuals and maybe even a sense of hope that she will one day see them again.

A number of recent studies corroborate this analysis of nostalgia (Abeyta et al., in press; Hepper, Ritchie, Sedikides, & Wildschut, 2012; Stephan, Sedikides, & Wildschut, 2012). In all, the research clearly indicates that nostalgia involves people revisiting the life experiences that make them feel, happy, loved, and meaningful. This hardly seems like the type of experience that would lead to mental anguish.

Based on the results of these initial studies, researchers proposed that nostalgia would lead to positive, not negative, psychological states (see Routledge et al., 2013). A number of published experiments support this proposal. In these experiments nostalgia is typically induced by having participants reflect on an experience they are nostalgic about or listen to music that they have identified as nostalgic. Participants in control conditions reflect on other, non-nostalgic autobiographical experiences or listen to music that they have not identified as nostalgic. Subsequently, all participants complete questionnaires related to psychological health and well-being.

Using this general paradigm, researchers have found that nostalgia, relative to a control condition, increases positive mood (Wildschut et al., 2006), feelings of belongingness (Routledge et al., 2011; Wildschut et al., 2006; Zhou, Sedikides, Wildschut, & Gao, 2008), self-esteem (Vess et al., 2012; Wildschut et al., 2006), perceptions of meaning in life (Routledge, Arndt, Sedikides, & Wildschut 2008; Routledge et al., 2011; Routledge et al., 2012), and optimism about the future (Chueng et al., 2013). In addition, despite the fact that nostalgic memories may contain some negative emotions (e.g., sadness), engaging in nostalgia does not increase negative mood (Abeyta et al., in press; Wildschut et al., 2006). In all, the effects of nostalgia are positive.

But What about Distress?

The contemporary scientific research is at odds with historical accounts of nostalgia. Nostalgia does not lead to emotional suffering. It does not undermine mental health. Instead, nostalgia leads to a number of positive psychological states. So let us consider the assertion that distress is the cause, not effect of nostalgia. Researchers proposed that because it leads to positive psychological states, people may turn to nostalgia in response to psychological threat (see Routledge et al., 2013). That is, distress may trigger nostalgia. Numerous studies now support this possibility. For example, Wildschut and colleagues (2006) manipulated mood by having participants read one of three news articles and then measured nostalgia. More specifically, participants in a negative mood condition read an article about the wide destruction that resulted from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Participants in a positive mood condition read a lighthearted article about the birth of a polar bear at the London Zoo. Who doesn’t love baby bears? Participants in a neutral mood condition read an article about the unmanned probe mission to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. All of the participants then completed questionnaires assessing current levels of nostalgia. In one of these questionnaires, they rated the extent to which they missed different aspects of their past (e.g., family, friends, holidays; Batcho, 1995). The second questionnaire contained items directly assessing feelings of nostalgia (e.g., “Right now I am feeling nostalgic”). Results supported the claim that psychological threat triggers nostalgia. Participants who read the negative mood inducing article about the tsunami indicated feeling more nostalgic than participants who read the neutral and positive mood inducing articles. Negative emotions inspire nostalgia, not the other way around.

Other studies further showcase that when people are psychologically vulnerable or threatened, they are motivated to engage in nostalgia. For example, Routledge and colleagues (2011) manipulated perceptions of existential meaning by having some participants read a philosophical essay that highlighted how transient and cosmically insignificant human life is. You know, they type of material you read in an introductory philosophy class or the poetry of a disillusioned teenager. The remaining participants read an essay about the limits of computer technology. Participants then completed a nostalgia questionnaire. Mirroring the results of the study evidencing that negative mood increases nostalgia, reading the existentially depressing article provoked nostalgia. Philosophy majors must be a nostalgic bunch.