Abstract
This article seeks to develop theoretical convergences between the science of nostalgia and the science of heroism. We take four approaches in forging a conceptual relationship between these two phenomena. First, we examine the definitions of nostalgia and heroism from scholars, laypeople, and across cultures, noting how the history of defining the two phenomena has shaped current conceptualizations. Second, we demonstrate how nostalgic experiences consist of reminiscences about our own personal heroism and about cultural role models and heroes. A review of heroism research, moreover, shows also that our recall of our heroes and of heroism is tinged with nostalgia. Third, we make linkages between heroism and nostalgia research focusing on functions, inspiration, sociality, and motivation. Nostalgia researchers have illuminated the functions of nostalgia implicating the self, existential concerns, goal pursuit, and sociality. Our review shows that heroism researchers invoke similar categories of hero functionality. Finally, we propose three areas of future research that can profit from the merging of nostalgia and heroism science, involving the mechanisms by which (a) heroism can fuel nostalgia, (b) nostalgia can promote heroic action, and (c) wisdom results from nostalgic reverie.
Highlights
Each year over 100 countries around the world celebrate Mother’s Day
Heroism researchers have examined the ways in which heroes and hero narratives fulfill a number of important psychological and life-enhancing functions that relate to wisdom
If our mothers and other close family members can be a source of both heroism and nostalgia, it would seem to be a fruitful exercise to identify and develop connections between these two psychological and behavioral phenomena
Summary
Each year over 100 countries around the world celebrate Mother’s Day. Commemorations of the day are replete with social media testimonials featuring people’s nostalgic remembrances of their mothers. Nostalgia may implicate universal psychological processes involving emotional expression, whereas the content of heroism may be more person-specific and culture-specific In their seminal article that opened the floodgates for nostalgia research, Wildschut et al (2006) found that “the two most common objects of nostalgia were persons and momentous events” Additional research by Routledge (2015) has shown that a large proportion of nostalgic content includes memories of activities involving close nuclear family members This finding, coupled with the discovery of Allison and Goethals (2011) that over 40% of their survey respondents listed either their mothers or fathers as their heroes, suggests that our heroes tend to occupy a significant portion of nostalgic content. We illuminate the connection between these benefits of nostalgia and heroism below
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