Skip to main content
Search
Search
    Quick Search anywhere
    Quick search in Citations
Advanced Search
Skip main navigationClose Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu
Next article
Original Article

Regaining In-Group Continuity in Times of Anxiety About the Group’s Future

A Study on the Role of Collective Nostalgia Across 27 Countries

Published Online:October 09, 2018https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000350

Abstract

Abstract. Collective nostalgia for the good old days of the country thrives across the world. However, little is known about the social psychological dynamics of this collective emotion across cultures. We predicted that collective nostalgia is triggered by collective angst as it helps people to restore a sense of in-group continuity via stronger in-group belonging and out-group rejection (in the form of opposition to immigrants). Based on a sample (N = 5,956) of individuals across 27 countries, the general pattern of results revealed that collective angst predicts collective nostalgia, which subsequently relates to stronger feelings of in-group continuity via in-group belonging (but not via out-group rejection). Collective nostalgia generally predicted opposition to immigrants, but this was subsequently not related to in-group continuity.

References

  • Akaike, H. (1974). A new look at the statistical model identification. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 19, 716–723. https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.1974.1100705 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Ariely, G. (2012). Globalisation and the decline of national identity? An exploration across sixty-three countries. Nations and Nationalism, 18, 461–482. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8129.2011.00532.x First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Asparouhov, T. & Muthén, B. (2014). Multiple-group factor analysis alignment. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 21, 495–508. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2014.919210 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Billiet, J. B. & McClendon, M. J. (2000). Modeling acquiescence in measurement models for two balanced sets of items. Structural Equation Modeling, 7, 608–628. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0704_5 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Boym, S. (2001). The future of nostalgia. New York, NY: Basic Books. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Browne, M. W. & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In K. A. BollenJ. S. LongEds., Testing structural equation models (pp. 136–162). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Byrne, B. M. (2001). Structural equation modeling: Perspectives on the present and the future. International Journal of Testing, 1, 327–334. https://doi.org/10.1080/15305058.2001.9669479 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Cheung, W.-Y., Sedikides, C. & Wildschut, T. (2016). Induced nostalgia increases optimism (via social-connectedness and self-esteem) among individuals high, but not low, in trait nostalgia. Personality and Individual Differences, 90, 283–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.11.028 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Cheung, W. Y., Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T., Tausch, N. & Ayanian, A. (2017). Collective nostalgia is associated with stronger outgroup-directed anger and participation in ingroup-favoring collective action. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 5, 301–319. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v5i2.697 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Davidov, E., Meuleman, B., Cieciuch, J., Schmidt, P. & Billiet, J. (2014). Measurement equivalence in cross-national research. Annual Review of Sociology, 40, 55–75. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043137 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Davis, F. (1979). Yearning for yesterday: A sociology of nostalgia. New York, NY: The Free Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Frijda, N. H. (2007). The laws of emotion. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Hepper, E. G., Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Ritchie, T. D., Yung, Y. F., Hansen, N., … Gebauer, J. E. (2014). Pancultural nostalgia: Prototypical conceptions across cultures. Emotion, 14, 733–747. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036790 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Hu, L. T. & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6, 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Ipsos Mori. (2016). Ipsos Global Trends Survey. Retrieved from https://www.ipsosglobaltrends.com/data/ First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Jang, S., Kim, E. S., Cao, C., Allen, T. D., Cooper, C. L., Lapierre, L. M., … Abarca, N. (2017). Measurement invariance of the satisfaction with life scale across 26 countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 48, 560–576. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022117697844 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Jetten, J. & Wohl, M. J. A. (2012). The past as a determinant of the present: Historical continuity, collective angst, and opposition to immigration. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 442–450. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.865 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Juhl, J., Routledge, C., Arndt, J., Sedikides, C. & Wildschut, T. (2010). Fighting the future with the past: Nostalgia buffers existential threat. Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 309–314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2010.02.006 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Kasinitz, P. & Hillyard, D. (1995). The old timer’s tale: The politics of nostalgia on the waterfront. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 24, 139–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124195024002001 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Kenny, D. A. (2018). Mediation. Retrieved from http://www.davidakenny.net/cm/mediate.htm First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Kim, H. S. & Wohl, M. J. (2015). The bright side of self-discontinuity: Feeling disconnected with the past self increases readiness to change addictive behaviors (via nostalgia). Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6, 229–237. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550614549482 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Kosterman, R. & Feshbach, S. (1989). Toward a measure of patriotic and nationalistic attitudes. Political Psychology, 10, 257–274. https://doi.org/10.2307/3791647 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Kundnani, A. (2007). Integrationism: The politics of anti-Muslim racism. Race & Class, 48, 24–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396807077069 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Lackner, T. & Smeekes, A. (2018). Longing for our country of the past: An analysis of the contents of national nostalgia and their consequences for anti-immigrant attitudes in the Netherlands. Manuscript in preparation. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Landau, M. J., Greenberg, J. & Solomon, S. (2008). The never-ending story: A terror management perspective on the psychological function of self-continuity. In F. SaniEd., Self-continuity: Individual and collective perspectives (pp. 87–100). New York, NY: Psychology Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Lucas, T., Rudolph, C., Zhdanova, L., Barkho, E. & Weidner, N. (2014). Distributive justice for others, collective angst, and support for exclusion of immigrants. Political Psychology, 35, 775–793. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12204 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Mackie, D. M., Devos, T. & Smith, E. R. (2000). Intergroup emotions: Explaining offensive action tendencies in an intergroup context. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 602–610. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.4.602 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Milfont, T. L. & Fischer, R. (2010). Testing measurement invariance across groups: Applications in cross-cultural research. International Journal of Psychological Research, 3, 111–121. https://doi.org/10.21500/20112084.857 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Milligan, M. J. (2003). Displacement and identity discontinuity: The role of nostalgia in establishing new identity categories. Symbolic Interaction, 26, 381–403. https://doi.org/10.1525/si.2003.26.3.381 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Millsap, R. E. (2011). Statistical approaches to measurement invariance. New York, NY: Routledge. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Mols, F. & Jetten, J. (2014). No guts, no glory: How framing the collective past paves the way for anti-immigrant sentiments. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 43, 74–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2014.08.014 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Preacher, K. J. & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879–891. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Routledge, C., Arndt, J., Sedikides, C. & Wildschut, T. (2008). A blast from the past: The terror management function of nostalgia. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 132–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2006.11.001 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Sani, F., Bowe, M. & Herrera, M. (2008). Perceived collective continuity and social well-being: Exploring the connections. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 365–374. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.461 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Sani, F., Bowe, M., Herrera, M., Manna, C., Cossa, T., Miao, X. & Zhou, Y. (2007). Perceived collective continuity: Seeing groups as entities that move through time. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 1118–1134. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.430 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Schildkraut, D. J. (2007). Defining American identity in the twenty‐first century: How much “there” is there? Journal of Politics, 69, 597–615. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2007.00562.x First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T., Cheung, W. Y., Routledge, C., Hepper, E. G., Arndt, J., … Vingerhoets, A. J. (2016). Nostalgia fosters self-continuity: Uncovering the mechanism (social connectedness) and consequence (eudaimonic well-being). Emotion, 16, 524–539. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000136 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T., Routledge, C. & Arndt, J. (2015a). Nostalgia counteracts self-discontinuity and restores self-continuity. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45, 52–61. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2073 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T., Routledge, C., Arndt, J., Hepper, E. G. & Zhou, X. (2015b). Chapter five – To nostalgize: Mixing memory with affect and desire. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 51, 189–273. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2014.10.001 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Semyonov, M., Raijman, R. & Gorodzeisky, A. (2008). Foreigners’ impact on European societies public views and perceptions in a cross-national comparative perspective. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 49, 5–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020715207088585 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Shevlin, M. & Miles, J. N. (1998). Effects of sample size, model specification and factor loadings on the GFI in confirmatory factor analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 85–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(98)00055-5 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Smeekes, A. (2015). National nostalgia: a group-level emotion that benefits the in-group but hampers intergroup relations. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 49, 54–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2015.07.001 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Smeekes, A. & Verkuyten, M. (2015). The presence of the past: Identity continuity and group dynamics. European Review of Social Psychology, 26, 162–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2015.1112653 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Smeekes, A., Verkuyten, M. & Martinovic, B. (2015). Longing for the country’s good old days: National nostalgia, autochthony beliefs, and opposition to Muslim expressive rights. British Journal of Social Psychology, 54, 561–580. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12097 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Sniderman, P. M. & Hagendoorn, L. (2007). When ways of life collide: Multiculturalism and its discontents in the Netherlands. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Tabri, N., Wohl, M. J. A. & Caouette, J. (2017). We will be harmed, it will be severe, and we can’t prevent it: Threat appraisals predict collective angst (and its consequences). European Journal of Social Psychology, 48, 72–85. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2303 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. AustinS. WorchelEds., The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33–48). Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Teymoori, A., Jetten, J., Bastian, B., Ariyanto, A., Autin, F., Ayub, N., … Cui, L. (2016). Revisiting the measurement of anomie. PLoS One, 11, e0158370. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0158370 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Turner, J. C., Hogg, M. A., Oakes, P. J., Reicher, S. D. & Wetherell, M. S. (1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Van de Vijver, F. J. & Tanzer, N. K. (1997). Bias and equivalence in cross-cultural assessment: An overview. European Review of Applied Psychology, 47, 263–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2003.12.004 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Walker, J. & Maddan, S. (2013). Statistics in criminology and criminal justice: Analysis and interpretation (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Wildschut, T., Bruder, M., Robertson, S., Van Tilburg, W. & Sedikides, C. (2014). Collective nostalgia: A group-level emotion that confers unique benefits on the group. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107, 844–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037760 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Wohl, M. J. A., Branscombe, N. R. & Reysen, S. (2010). Perceiving your group’s future to be in jeopardy: Extinction threat induces collective angst and the desire to strengthen the ingroup. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 898–910. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167210372505 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Wohl, M. J., Squires, E. C. & Caouette, J. (2012). We were, we are, will we be? The social psychology of collective angst. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6, 379–391. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2012.00437.x First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • World Values Survey. (2010–2014). Retrieved from http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Vignoles, V. L. (2011). Identity motives. In K. LuyckeS. J. SchwartzV. L. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of identity theory and research (pp. 403–432). New York, NY: Springer. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Zhou, X., Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Shi, K. & Feng, C. (2011). Nostalgia: The gift that keeps on giving. Journal of Consumer Research, 39, 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1086/662199 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar