Behavior

Why Nostalgia Is Good for You

   The bittersweet emotion increases feelings of vitality
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   Why Nostalgia Is Good for You
   Credit: BRIAN STAUFFER
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   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
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   in England and the primary author of the paper, which was recently
   published in Emotion, had shown this effect in a 2015 paper. But here
   they found that nostalgia boosted self-continuity by increasing a sense
   of social connectedness. Sentimental recollections often include loved
   ones, which can remind us of a social web that extends across
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   Tim Wildschut, one of Sedikides's Southampton collaborators on the
   paper, notes there are many ways people elicit nostalgia—looking at
   photographs, cooking certain meals, sharing stories or playing music.
   He calls the feeling, which we naturally experience several times a
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   This article was originally published with the title "Embrace the
   Nostalgia" in SA Mind 27, 6, 8-9 (November 2016)

   doi:10.1038/scientificamericanmind1116-8b