Tim Wildschut

University of Southampton · Centre for Research on Self and Identity

Interest in nostalgia has blossomed, yet its nature in older adulthood and potential for intergenerational transfer to younger adults has remained neglected. In Experiment 1, we focused on the content of older adults’ nostalgic (vs. ordinary) recollections and asked whether older adults’ nostalgia could be transferred to younger adults. We showed t...

This research established collective nostalgia as a group-level emotion and ascertained the benefits it confers on the group. In Study 1, participants who reflected on a nostalgic event they had experienced together with ingroup members (collective nostalgia) evaluated the ingroup more positively and reported stronger intentions to approach (and no...

Individuals who are low (compared with high) in attachment-related avoidance rely on social bonds to regulate distress, and the authors hypothesized that nostalgia can be a repository of such social connectedness. Studies 1-3 showed a positive association between loneliness and nostalgia when attachment-related avoidance was low, but not when it wa...

Seven methodologically diverse studies addressed 3 fundamental questions about nostalgia. Studies 1 and 2 examined the content of nostalgic experiences. Descriptions of nostalgic experiences typically featured the self as a protagonist in interactions with close others (e.g., friends) or in momentous events (e.g., weddings). Also, the descriptions...

This quantitative review of 130 comparisons of interindividual and intergroup interactions in the context of mixed-motive situations reveals that intergroup interactions are generally more competitive than interindividual interactions. The authors identify 4 moderators of this interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect, each based on the theor...

Nostalgic reverie (i.e. sentimental longing) has received increased attention as a predictor of health and well‐being, but only a handful of reviews have summarized this literature. The available reviews (Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 19 , 2020, 330; Intimations of nostalgia: Multidisciplinary explorations of...

Parental tradition transfer to children is pivotal for their socialization, identity formation, and culture perpetuation. But what motivates parents to transfer traditions to their children? We hypothesized that nostalgia, an emotion strengthening interpersonal bonds, would promote tradition transfer through parent-child relationship closeness. We...

Employee well‐being is a critical consideration for organizations. It may be particularly so in the post COVID‐19 era, where many still suffer from the pandemic's after‐effects. We propose a novel pathway to maintain and improve employee well‐being: organizational nostalgia, one's sentimental longing or wistful affection for past organizational eve...

Socially anxious individuals struggle with establishing and maintaining social relationships. We hypothesized that, when socially anxious, people often turn to nostalgia, which alleviates the interpersonal competence deficits that accompany social anxiety. We tested and supported this hypothesis in six studies ( N = 1,858), three preregistered. In...

Organizational nostalgia – a sentimental longing for past events in, and aspects of, one's organizational life – is a commonly experienced but poorly understood emotion. Qualitative research has explored how it helps employees cope with threat. Here, we examine its motivational properties. Building on the job demands–resources model, we hypothesize...

Nostalgia is a prevalent emotion that confers psychological benefits and influences consumer behavior. We developed and validated the 98‐word Nostalgia Dictionary to automatize the assessment of nostalgicity in narratives (e.g., customer reviews, social media). First, we created an initial wordlist by identifying the most frequently used words in n...

We review four established scales for measuring individual differences in trait-level nostalgia: the Nostalgia Inventory, the Southampton Nostalgia Scale, the Nostalgia Prototype Scale, and the Personal Inventory of Nostalgic Experiences. To examine their convergent validity, we re-analyzed data from a published study in which all four scales were...

Salient landmarks enhance route learning. We hypothesised that semantically salient nostalgic landmarks would improve route learning compared to non-nostalgic landmarks. In two experiments, participants learned a route through a computer-generated maze using directional arrows and wall-mounted pictures. On the test trial, the arrows were removed, a...

Objective: We were concerned with the relation between distress and nostalgia. At the state level, extensive research has established that momentary nostalgia is evoked by (experimentally manipulated) distress. However, at the trait level, the directionality of this relation is unclear. We conducted a longitudinal study to clarify the directional...

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one’s past, is associated with, or confers, psychological wellbeing (PWB). We identified a mechanism for this link: collective effervescence, a potent sense of connection to those present in an assembly and a sensation of transcendence (i.e., feeling that an experience is special or sacred). In six studies, invo...

We examined the change and stability of nostalgia in emerging adulthood. We followed 327 students through their 4 university years with six assessments. Nostalgia demonstrated moderate rank stability (r = .25-.79). A Trait-State-Occasion model analysis indicated that the stable trait component, slowing-change trait component, and state component ex...

Self-continuity is the subjective sense of connection between one's past and present selves (past–present self-continuity), between one's present and future selves (present–future self-continuity), or among one's past, present, and future selves (global self-continuity). We consider the motivational character of the three forms of self-continuity,...

We propose that COVID-related stress undermines felt authenticity, but also triggers nostalgia. In turn, nostalgia conduces to felt authenticity, thereby counteracting the deleterious impact of COVID-related stress. We tested this regulatory model of nostalgia in two studies. Study 1 was an online cross-sectional study during the pandemic, in which...

Nostalgia, an approach-oriented emotion, has motivational consequences. In particular, nostalgia raises optimism and inspiration, strengthens the pursuit of one’s important goals, appears to encourage financial risk-taking, activates the intrinsic or authentic self, and galvanizes the desire to change one’s addictive behavior. Nostalgia, a past-ori...

We organize the literature on triggers and functions of nostalgia by advancing a regulatory model in which the emotion serves as a homeostatic corrective (i.e., a process that establishes and maintains a relatively stable psychological equilibrium) that countervails the negative effects of psychological perturbations and adverse environmental condi...

In three studies, we examined food as an elicitor of nostalgia. Study 1 participants visualised eating either a nostalgic or regularly consumed food. Study 2 participants visualised consuming 12 foods. Study 3 participants consumed 12 flavour samples. Following their food experiences, all participants responded to questions regarding the profile of...

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one's past, predicts or augments psychological wellbeing (PWB). We hypothesized that it does so—at least in part—via authenticity, a sense of alignment with one's true self. We obtained support for this hypothesis in four studies. Using a measurement-of-mediation design, across a Western (United States) and East...

Global trends surveys suggest that collective nostalgia for one's country is widespread. Moreover, research indicates that collective nostalgia is used by populist radical‐right parties to mobilize their voters against immigration. We focused on antecedents of collective nostalgia and its consequences for collective action in the context of nationa...

Nostalgia, a bittersweet but predominantly positive emotion, arises from self-relevant and social memories. Evidence suggests that nostalgia is a potential source of happiness. Indeed, at the phenotypic level, this relation appears to be positive albeit tenuous. At the etiologic level, the relation is unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, we investi...

We investigated the relation between nostalgia and spirituality. We hypothesized that nostalgia is linked to greater spirituality through self-continuity and, in turn, meaning in life. In Study 1, we measured nostalgia and spirituality. Nostalgia predicted greater spirituality. In Study 2, we tested this relation in a nationally representative samp...

Nostalgia arises from tender and yearnful reflection on meaningful life events or important persons from one’s past. In the last two decades, the literature has documented a variety of ways in which nostalgia benefits psychological well-being. Only a handful of studies, however, have addressed the neural basis of the emotion. In this prospective re...

We propose criteria for assessing the cross-cultural universality of cognitive representations that underlie complex psychological constructs. According to prototype theory, complex constructs are cognitively represented in terms of central and peripheral features. The cross-cultural universality of a complex construct, then, pertains to the level...

We propose criteria for assessing the cross-cultural universality of cognitive representations that underlie complex psychological constructs. According to prototype theory, complex constructs are cognitively represented in terms of central and peripheral features. The cross-cultural universality of a complex construct, then, pertains to the level...

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one's past, has been garnering keen empirical attention in the psychological literature over the last two decades. After providing a historical overview, we place the emotion in cross-cultural context. Laypeople in many cultures conceptualize nostalgia similarly: as a past-oriented, social, self-relevant, and bi...

The population of older adults worldwide is growing, with an urgent need for approaches that develop and maintain intrinsic capacity consistent with healthy aging. Theory and empirical research converge on feeling safe as central to healthy aging. However, there has been limited attention to resources that cultivate feeling safe to support healthy...

Weight stigma, a negative attitude toward the overweight, can lead to discriminatory practices, as well as increase overweight individuals' vulnerability to depression, anxiety, and low self‐esteem. We propose that a nostalgia induction can attenuate weight stigma. Participants identified an overweight individual, before writing about an interperso...

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered and exacerbated psychological distress, and exposed psychological vulnerabilities, in large swathes of the population. Under challenging circumstances, nostalgia may convey tangible psychological and physical health benefits. We review recent evidence for nostalgia’s utility in vulnerable populations, including s...

Nostalgia is an emotion that confers psychological benefits. The literature has neglected romantic nostalgia—that is, nostalgia specifically for past experiences shared with one’s partner—and its potential advantages for relationships. We examined romantic nostalgia in one correlational study, two experiments, and one daily diary study (N = 638). R...

We provide a narrative review of the nascent literature on the psychological benefits of music-evoked nostalgia. Music is a prevalent and influential source of nostalgia. Music-evoked nostalgia confers approach-oriented psychological benefits in the social domain (by fostering social connectedness), self-oriented domain (by raising self-esteem, ins...

Objectives: Nostalgic memories are more social than other forms of autobiographical recall, often refer to atypical events, express more positive affect and reflect life as meaningful. Recalling a nostalgic (compared to ordinary) memory increases self-esteem, self-growth, meaning in life and social connectedness for people living with dementia. We...

Lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic increased the risk for loneliness. We tested whether nostalgia counteracts loneliness via rises in happiness. We conducted surveys in China ( N = 1,546), the United States ( N = 1,572), and the United Kingdom ( N = 603). Although feeling lonely was associated with unhappiness, it was also associated with nosta...

Transgressions and injustice are an inevitable part of social life, both in interactions between individuals and between groups. But whereas conflict between individuals typically impacts only few, conflict between groups can be harmful to many – as is illustrated by disputes between nations, political parties, and social groups. For this reason, i...

An experiment examined the potency of nostalgia—a sentimental longing for one’s past—to facilitate detection of death-related stimuli, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioral techniques (i.e., judgmental accuracy, reaction times). We hypothesized and found that, at the neural level, nostalgic (relative to control) particip...

People exhibit impaired recall for highly self-threatening information that describes them, a phenomenon called the mnemic neglect effect (MNE). We hypothesized that the MNE extends to recall for information that highly threatens an individual’s important in-group identity. We tested our hypothesis in two experiments in which participants read beha...

Although dementia may affect the reliability of autobiographical memories, the psychological properties of nostalgic memories may be preserved. We compared the content of nostalgic (n = 36) and ordinary (n = 31) narratives of 67 participants living with dementia. Narratives were rated according to their self-oriented, social, and existential proper...

In five studies (N = 1,074), we examined the relation—both correlational and causal—between nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one’s past, and global self-continuity (GSC), a sense of connection among past, present, and future selves. Further, we addressed mechanisms underlying this relation. We asked, in particular, whether nostalgic individuals...

Although dementia may affect the reliability of autobiographical memories, the psychological properties of nostalgic memories may be preserved. We compared the content of nostalgic (n = 36) and ordinary (n = 31) narratives of 67 participants living with dementia. Narratives were rated according to their self-oriented, social, and existential proper...

Nostalgia is a sentimental longing for one’s past. We examined the effect of a 6-week, weekly nostalgia intervention on well-being (positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, subjective vitality, and eudaimonic well-being) over time. After three weeks, participants who engaged in nostalgic reflection had higher well-being than those who engag...

We sought to clarify the psychological profile of experimentally induced nostalgia, compared to two other modes of thinking about one’s past—reflection and brooding—also experimentally induced. We tested both British and Chinese participants. Our main hypothesis was that nostalgia’s profile is more positive in terms of six psychological benefits an...

Collective nostalgia is a bittersweet emotion that reflects sentimental longing for valued aspects of the past of one’s group. Given that conservatism is typically associated with a general desire to preserve the societal status quo or return society to its traditional way of being, nostalgia has been theorized to be characteristic of those on the...

Does nostalgia for one’s time at university predict current intentions to engage with the university? In Study 1, United States participants’ nostalgia for their university experience (university nostalgia) at a southern public university predicted stronger intentions to socialize with fellow alumni, attend a future reunion, volunteer for their uni...

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one’s meaningful past, promotes global self-continuity (GSC), a sense of connection among one’s past, present, and future selves. We identified a cognitive mechanism for this effect: holistic thinking, and in particular interactional causality (presupposing multiple causes that interact to influence an object’s...

Although it is known that collective narcissism is associated with problematic intergroup relations, its predictors are less well understood. Two studies, conducted in four European Union countries (Germany, Greece, Portugal, the United Kingdom [UK]), tested the hypotheses that integrated (i.e., realistic and symbolic) threat (Study 1, N = 936) as...

In two studies, we examined the association between nostalgia proneness (i.e., trait-level nostalgia) and importance of the collective self. In Study 1, we tested and supported the hypothesis that nostalgia proneness is positively correlated with relational collectivism, which entails an emphasis on one’s connections with close others and small soc...

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one's past, can serve as a resource for individuals coping with discomforting experiences. The experience of bereavement poses psychological and physical risks. In a longitudinal study, we examined whether dispositional nostalgia predicted reductions in distress associated with the death of a loved one. Undergra...

Dementia represents a substantial threat to the self. However, to date, there is no reliable way to measure how threatened people feel by dementia. This article reports on two online studies. In Study 1, 248 participants rated statements about dementia according to their threat to well-being. In Study 2, 99 participants (all undergraduate students...

We conducted an integrative data analysis to examine the hedonic character of nostalgia. We combined positive and negative affect measures from 41 experiments manipulating nostalgia (N = 4,659). Overall, nostalgia inductions increased positive and ambivalent affect, but did not significantly alter negative affect. The magnitude of nostalgia’s effec...

Transgressions and injustice are an inevitable part of social life, both in interactions between individuals and between groups. But whereas conflict between individuals typically impacts only few, conflict between groups can be harmful to many – as is illustrated by disputes between nations, political parties, and social groups. For this reason, i...

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, conveys self-oriented, existential, and social benefits. We examined whether nostalgic engagement is less beneficial for individuals who are high in neuroticism (i.e., those who are emotionally unstable and prone to negative affect). Specifically, we tested whether the benefits of...

Nostalgia is a bittersweet—albeit predominantly positive—self-relevant and social emotion that arises from reflecting on fond and meaningful autobiographical memories. Nostalgia might facilitate successful aging by serving as a socioemotional selectivity strategy in the face of limited time horizons. Four studies tested the role of nostalgia in mai...

Individuals are often reluctant to seek help from others. Nostalgia is a highly social emotion that bolsters perceptions of connectedness with others. In six studies, we investigated whether nostalgia reduces individuals’ general reluctance to reach out to others for help by virtue of its capacity to strengthen social connectedness (i.e., a sense o...

Prior research, relying mostly on samples from the UK and the US, has indicated that nostalgia serves as a source of self-continuity (a sense that one’s past is interwoven with one’s present), and it does so by increasing social connectedness (a sense of belongingness and acceptance). The present research aimed to conceptually replicate and extend...

Anticipated nostalgia is a new construct that has received limited empirical attention. It concerns the anticipation of having nostalgic feelings for one’s present and future experiences. In three studies, we assessed its prevalence, content, emotional profile, and implications for self-regulation and psychological functioning. Study 1 revealed tha...

Objective: Nostalgia is a sentimental longing for one's past. We examined the hypotheses (rooted in attachment theory and research) that nostalgia prone individuals, by virtue of their greater attachment security, are more empathic and enact more prosocial behavior. Method: In five studies, testing 1923 participants (Nrange = 132-823, 52.42% wom...

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, is an ambivalent—albeit more positive than negative—emotion. Nostalgia is infused with sociality, as it refers to important figures from one’s past or to momentous life events that include those figures. Dispositional nostalgia is related to prejudice reduction via increases in a form of sociality, emp...

We proposed that nostalgic labels strengthen the appeal of food items when the items are intrinsically nostalgic (e.g., related to one's childhood). Nostalgic labels do so by fostering a sense of food comfort (i.e., safety and security) among potential consumers. Experiment 1, testing a Chinese sample, confirmed that nostalgic (vs. descriptive) lab...

We examined the psychological functions of nostalgia (hanin in Arabic) among Syrian refugees residing in Saudi Arabia, who were forcefully displaced during the Syrian civil war. Forced displacement entails disruption, loss, and mourning, creating a salient contrast between one's past and present circumstances, which could attenuate the benefits of...

We examined whether nostalgia increases intrinsic motivation in situations of low (vs. high) interactional justice, with downstream implications for work effort. In Study 1, we tested employees of various organizations using experience sampling methodology (ESM). High (vs. low) momentary nostalgia predicted stronger momentary intrinsic motivation,...

Background: Studies with non-clinical populations show that nostalgia increases psychological resources, such as self-esteem and social connectedness. Objectives: Our objectives were to find out if the benefits of nostalgia in non-clinical populations generalize to people with dementia and if nostalgia facilitates recall of dementia-related info...

Nostalgia increases meaning in life, but how so? In four experiments—using varied operationalizations of nostalgia, diverse populations, and complementary methodologies—we identified a serial process. We hypothesized and found, in Experiment 1, that self‐continuity boosts meaning in life. We hypothesized and found, in Experiment 2, that nostalgia i...