Nostalgia as a relational catalyst for gift giving.

This research examined whether nostalgia motivates gift-giving intentions across five experiments. In the first four experiments (N = 1,863), participants induced to recall a nostalgic (vs. ordinary) experience involving a familiar other reported stronger intentions to give that person a gift. Nostalgia not only increased the likelihood of intending to give, but also elevated the amount that participants were willing to spend and their willingness to invest in gift personalization. Mediational analyses further revealed that these effects were driven by heightened perceptions of relationship importance, underscoring the relational mechanism through which nostalgia operates. In the final experiment (N = 380), we tested a boundary of gifting intentions. A generic nostalgic experience (rather than a nostalgic experience shared with a familiar other) did not strengthen gifting intentions for a familiar adult. Taken together, these findings advance understanding of the psychological foundations of gift giving by identifying nostalgia as a relationally grounded antecedent of prosocial consumption, thereby clarifying how emotionally laden recollections of shared past experiences translate into economically meaningful giving intentions.