Is Nostalgia a Past or Future-Oriented Experience? Affective, Behavioral, Social Cognitive, and Neuroscientific Evidence

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, is a common, universal, and highly social emotional experience.Nostalgic reverie is centered around the self, important social connections, and personally meaningful life events (e.g., graduation; Routledge, 2015).In other words, when people bring to mind memories that make them nostalgic, they are revisiting personally meaningful life events shared with loved ones.A growing body of research positions nostalgia as a psychological resource with self-regulatory implications.Negative affective states such as sadness, loneliness, and meaninglessness trigger nostalgia and nostalgia, in turn, enhances well-being, feelings of social connectedness, and perceptions of meaning in life (e.g., Routledge et al., 2013).Building on the behavioral inhibition (BIS/avoidance motivation) and behavioral activation (BAS/approach motivation) regulatory model Carver and White (1994), research also indicates that the activation of avoidance motivation increases nostalgia, which then activates approach motivation (Stephan et al., 2014).In the present analysis, we draw on the current state of the science to propose that nostalgia is ultimately a future-oriented emotional experience.Nostalgia involves reflecting on past experiences but it motivates affective states, behaviors, and goals that improve people's future lives.In the following sections, we briefly review relevant evidence across affective, behavioral, social cognitive, and neuroscientific indicators and close by considering the need for future research focused on nostalgia as a shared experience. FUTURE-ORIENTED AFFECTNostalgia increases general well-being (Routledge et al., 2013) but also positively impacts motivation-relevant affect.For instance, nostalgia increases optimism (Cheung et al., 2013(Cheung et al., , 2016) ) inspiration (Stephan et al., 2015) social efficacy (Abeyta et al., 2015) and feelings of purpose in life (Routledge et al., 2011).In addition, as people get older, nostalgia makes them feel youthful and more optimistic about their health (Abeyta and Routledge, 2016).People's written accounts of nostalgic memories also frequently contain themes of appreciation for both the past and hopefulness for the future (Routledge, 2015).In short, nostalgia promotes the types of affective states that mobilize the self for action. FUTURE-ORIENTED BEHAVIORCritically, nostalgia-induced affective states promote relevant behavior.For instance, health optimism triggered by nostalgia is associated with increased intentions to exercise and eat well,