Project in LISS Call 2018
Researchers: A.N. Smeekes (UU), T. Wildschut (University of Southampton), C. Sedikides (University of Southampton)
The Ipsos Global Trends Survey shows that national nostalgia thrives across the world. In most countries, more than 50% of the population would like their country to be the way it was in the past. People can feel nostalgic not only for memories from their unique individual past (i.e., personal nostalgia), but also for memories related to objects, periods, or events from a past that they share with fellow group members (i.e., collective nostalgia). Reseachers have only recently started to examine collective nostalgia and its implications for group dynamics. Collective nostalgia has consequences for both intragroup and intergroup dynamics. It has positive consequences for attitudes and behaviors towards the in-group, but has negative consequences for perceptions of out-groups.
The researchers in this project wish to extend the small literature on this topic. The main aim of the current project is to examine the triggers, functions, and consequences of collective nostalgia for group dynamics. They will conduct a longitudinal survey among a sample of 1500 native Dutch adults in the LISS panel. To be able to examine the longitudinal relations among collective discontinuity, collective nostalgia, collective continuity, and attitudes/behaviors at the intragroup and intergroup levels, they will collect repeated measurements for all proposed constructs at two time points, with at least 6-month intervals.
Image: Annca for Pixabay