A Nostalgic Past Increases Optimism about the Future

You would think that nostalgia would cause pessimism or even sadness, but it turns out that this isn't the case. Researchers have revealed that feeling nostalgic about the past actually increases optimism about the future.

"Nostalgia is experienced frequently and virtually by everyone and we know that it can maintain psychological comfort," said Tim Wildschut, one of the researchers, in a news release. "For example, nostalgic reverie can combat loneliness. We wanted to take that a step further and assess whether it can increase a feeling of optimism about the future."

In order to better assess nostalgia, the researchers conducted a series of studies. In one of them, the scientists asked participants to bring to mind a nostalgic event and write about it. The number of optimistic words included in the narrative was then compared to a control group who were asked to recall and write about an ordinary event. The nostalgic narratives, in contrast to the ordinary stories, contained a significantly higher proportion of optimistic expressions.

That's not the only experiment that the researchers examined, though. Another one capitalized on music's ability to evoke nostalgia. Participants either listened to a nostalgic song or a control song, both previously validated. Those who listened to the nostalgic song reported higher levels of optimism than those who listened to the control song.

In a final study, volunteers were presented with song lyrics that half the group had previously identified to be nostalgic. They were then asked to complete questions about how they felt. Those who read the nostalgic lyrics reported being more optimistic than those who read the control lyrics.

"Nostalgia raises self-esteem which in turn heightens optimism," said Wildschut in a news release. "Our findings have shown that nostalgia does have the capacity to facilitate perceptions of a more positive future. Memories of the past can help to maintain current feelings of self-worth and can contribute to a brighter outlook on the future. Our findings do imply that nostalgia, by promoting optimism, could help individuals cope with psychological adversity."

The findings are published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.