Photo: flickr
The bittersweet emotion increases feelings of vitality. On holidays, it's natural to feel a longing for times gone by—a childhood spent singing carols or meals spent with now departed loved ones. Recently scientists have explored the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia, finding that it serves a positive function, improving mood and possibly mental health. A new paper illuminates why it works, finding that this sepia-toned sentiment does not cement us in the past but raises our spirit and vitality.
There were several experiments conducted both online and in the laboratory when participants were induced to experience wistful reverie via sentimental song lyrics or memories, they reported greater self-continuity, as measured by a validated index that asks participants how much they agree with statements such as “I feel connected with my past” and “important aspects of my personality remain the same over time.”
A psychologist at the University of Southamptom in England, Constantine Sedikides, had recently published a paper in Emotion as the primary author. They found that nostalgia boosted self-continuity by increasing a sense of connectedness. Sentimental recollections often include loved ones, which serve as a reminder of a social web that extends across people – and across time.
Such patterns were noticed in American, British and Chinese participants. Further experiments and observations were done via questionnaires about their concurrent feelings, that self-continuity brings a feeling of vitality – of “energy and spirit”.
Tim Wildschut, one of Sedikides's Southampton collaborators on the paper, notices that there are many ways people elicit nostalgia by looking at photographs, cooking certain meals, sharing stories or playing music. He calls such feelings we naturally experience as “a psychological immune response that is triggered when you experience little bumps in the road.”
So if you are feeling a bit discombobulated over the holidays, pull out a photo album and spend some time revisiting your past.
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Source material from Scientific American