Nostalgia assuages spatial anxiety
Nostalgia assuages spatial anxiety
According to the regulatory model of nostalgia, the emotion is triggered by adverse psychological and physical experiences. Nostalgia, in turn, serves to counter those negative states. We extend this model to encompass spatial anxiety, that is, apprehension and disorientation during environmental navigation. In Experiment 1, we induced spatial anxiety by training participants to navigate a route in a virtual maze and then surreptitiously changing part of the previously learned route (spatial-anxiety condition) or leaving the route unchanged (neutral condition). Consistent with the regulatory model, spatial anxiety (compared to the neutral condition) triggered nostalgia. In Experiments 2–3, we displayed nostalgic (nostalgia condition) or matched control (control condition) pictures on the walls of a virtual maze. Participants navigated the maze passively (video clip, Experiment 2) or actively (computer-based task, Experiment 3) and then reported their spatial anxiety. Supporting the regulatory model, nostalgia (compared to control) reduced spatial anxiety (Experiments 2–3) and this, in turn, predicted higher goal setting (Experiment 3). Nostalgia assuages spatial anxiety during environmental navigation.
Emotions, Environmental navigation, Goal setting, Nostalgia, Spatial anxiety
Oliver, Alice
18dffa2e-f895-4a54-8b40-4b1bc62cc09d
Wildschut, Tim
4452a61d-1649-4c4a-bb1d-154ec446ff81
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Parker, Matthew O.
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Wood, Antony P.
74e8ed07-c804-4d24-a5f8-7f2388cd556a
Redhead, Edward S.
d2342759-2c77-45ef-ac0f-9f70aa5db0df
May 2024
Oliver, Alice
18dffa2e-f895-4a54-8b40-4b1bc62cc09d
Wildschut, Tim
4452a61d-1649-4c4a-bb1d-154ec446ff81
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Parker, Matthew O.
4a620bcf-f6b2-418e-8891-b7fde09a2890
Wood, Antony P.
74e8ed07-c804-4d24-a5f8-7f2388cd556a
Redhead, Edward S.
d2342759-2c77-45ef-ac0f-9f70aa5db0df
Oliver, Alice, Wildschut, Tim, Sedikides, Constantine, Parker, Matthew O., Wood, Antony P. and Redhead, Edward S.
(2024)
Nostalgia assuages spatial anxiety.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 112, [104586].
(doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2023.104586).
Abstract
According to the regulatory model of nostalgia, the emotion is triggered by adverse psychological and physical experiences. Nostalgia, in turn, serves to counter those negative states. We extend this model to encompass spatial anxiety, that is, apprehension and disorientation during environmental navigation. In Experiment 1, we induced spatial anxiety by training participants to navigate a route in a virtual maze and then surreptitiously changing part of the previously learned route (spatial-anxiety condition) or leaving the route unchanged (neutral condition). Consistent with the regulatory model, spatial anxiety (compared to the neutral condition) triggered nostalgia. In Experiments 2–3, we displayed nostalgic (nostalgia condition) or matched control (control condition) pictures on the walls of a virtual maze. Participants navigated the maze passively (video clip, Experiment 2) or actively (computer-based task, Experiment 3) and then reported their spatial anxiety. Supporting the regulatory model, nostalgia (compared to control) reduced spatial anxiety (Experiments 2–3) and this, in turn, predicted higher goal setting (Experiment 3). Nostalgia assuages spatial anxiety during environmental navigation.
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Oliver et al., 2024, JESP
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Accepted/In Press date: 15 December 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 30 December 2023
Published date: May 2024
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (Grant Number: ES/P000673/1 ) awarded to Alice Oliver. We have no conflict of interest to declare. All data and analysis scripts are available on OSF ( https://osf.io/et7az/?view_only=7bf7ff8a404c499bbbc0ca02247bbf1a ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023
Keywords:
Emotions, Environmental navigation, Goal setting, Nostalgia, Spatial anxiety
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 485817
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/485817
ISSN: 0022-1031
PURE UUID: 2bbf50ac-e449-4ee0-b9f6-4fad3660e4b4
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Date deposited: 19 Dec 2023 18:05
Last modified: 26 Jun 2024 01:58
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Author:
Matthew O. Parker
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