Collective nostalgia

A group-level emotion that confers unique benefits on the group

Bibliographic Data

ID6198549
AuthorsTim Wildschut (0000-0002-6499-5487, University of Southampton), Martin Bruder (0000-0003-0966-4551, University of Konstanz), Sara Robertson (Canterbury Christ Church University), Wijnand A P Van Tilburg (0000-0002-9724-0603, University of Southampton), Constantine Sedikides (0000-0002-7563-306X, University of Southampton)
Year2014
Volume107
Issue5
Pages844-863
Publication date2014-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/a0037760
PMID25243415
OpenAlexW2057905236
LanguageEN
Citations received78
References cited71

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 not avoid) ingroup members than those who recalled a nostalgic event they had experienced individually (personal nostalgia), those who reflected on a lucky event they had experienced together with ingroup members (collective positive), and those who did not recall an event (no recall). In Study 2, collective (vs. personal) nostalgia strengthened behavioral intentions to support the ingroup more so than did recalling an ordinary collective (vs. personal) event. Increased collective self-esteem mediated this effect. In Study 3, collective nostalgia (compared with recall of an ordinary collective event) led participants to sacrifice money in order to punish a transgression perpetrated against an ingroup member. This effect of collective nostalgia was more pronounced when social identification was high (compared with low). Finally, in Study 4, collective nostalgia converged toward the group average (i.e., was socially shared) when participants thought of themselves in terms of their group membership. The findings underscore the viability of studying nostalgia at multiple levels of analysis and highlight the significance of collective nostalgia for understanding group-level attitudes, global action tendencies, specific behavioral intentions, and behavior

Group (periodic table) · Group behavior · Group dynamic · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Narrative Theory and Analysis · Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior · Psychology · Social Psychology

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