Nostalgia makes people eat healthier

Abstract

Nostalgia is a prominently used emotion in marketing. This work adds to the burgeoning literature on how feelings of nostalgia influence consumption behavior by investigating how nostalgia influences eating attitudes and behaviors. Two experiments showed that people consumed more and reported more favorable attitudes towards healthy food when feeling nostalgic (versus neutral). Nostalgia also diminished the consumption of unhealthy food. Process evidence revealed that nostalgia's differential influence on the consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods is due to increased perceptions of social support. Since perceptions of social support increase self-control resources, individuals were better able to make healthier food choices when in a nostalgic (versus neutral) state. The findings provided behavioral evidence that nostalgia positively influences healthy eating attitudes and behavior, and established perceived social support as an important mechanism underlying these effects. This work suggests that nostalgia can be a useful tool not only in our commercial marketing efforts, but also in public policy, in that it can help promote healthy food intake and well-being.