Abstract
Nostalgia is a fond longing for the past that has been shown to increase feelings of meaning, social connectedness, and self-continuity. Although nostalgia for personal memories provides intra- and interpersonal benefits, there may be negative consequences of group-based nostalgia on the perception and acceptance of others. The presented research examined national nostalgia (a form of collective nostalgia), and its effects on group identification and political attitudes in the United States. In a sample of US voters (N = 252), tendencies to feel personal and national nostalgia are associated with markedly different emotional and attitudinal profiles. Higher levels of national nostalgia predicted both positive attitudes toward President Trump and racial prejudice, though there was no evidence of such relationships with personal nostalgia. National nostalgia most strongly predicted positive attitudes toward president Trump among those high in racial prejudice. Furthermore, nostalgia's positive relationship with racial prejudice was partially mediated by perceived outgroup threat. Results from this study will help us better understand how the experience of national nostalgia can influence attitudes and motivate political behavior.
Highlights
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Personality and Social Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
We conducted a series of hierarchical linear regression models and bootstrapped mediation and moderation analyses to assess the relationship between nostalgia and political and intergroup attitudes using SPSS v. 20 and Hayes’ PROCESS macro v.3 (Hayes, 2013)
National nostalgia was associated with more positive feelings about President Trump, as well as increased perceived racial threat among White respondents
Summary
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Personality and Social Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Higher levels of national nostalgia predicted both positive attitudes toward President Trump and racial prejudice, though there was no evidence of such relationships with personal nostalgia. National nostalgia most strongly predicted positive attitudes toward president Trump among those high in racial prejudice. No research has of yet established whether Trump’s nostalgic rhetoric may be associated with voters’ attitudes toward racial outgroups. To this end, in this paper, we present evidence that national nostalgia, an emotion distinct from personal nostalgia, is associated with increased prejudice as well as support for the populist messaging of Donald Trump
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