Time capsule: Nostalgia shields wellbeing from limited time horizons

Abstract

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 maintaining psychological wellbeing across the adult life span and across differing time perspectives. In Study 1, community adults (N = 443, age 18 -91) completed measures of nostalgia proneness and 6 psychological wellbeing dimensions. Age was more positively related to wellbeing for those high than low on nostalgia proneness: High-nostalgic individuals showed a maintenance or increase in psychological wellbeing with age, whereas low-nostalgic individuals did not. In Study 2 (N = 35, age 18 -25), experimentally inducing a limited time perspective-a core trigger of socioemotional selectivity-in young adults prompted greater nostalgia. In Study 3 (N = 93, age 18 -33) and Study 4 (N = 376, age 18 -55), experimentally inducing a limited time perspective reduced some aspects of wellbeing among those who recalled an ordinary (Study 3) or lucky (Study 4) autobiographical memory, but this effect was eliminated among those who recalled a nostalgic memory. Nostalgia buffers perceptions of limited time and facilitates the maintenance of psychological wellbeing across the adult life span.

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