Nostalgia enhances gratitude by fostering social connectedness

Philip Zimbardo helped redefine and expand research on mental time travel through his work on time perspective (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). Nostalgia is a psychologically rich experience centered around sentimental recollection of the past, particularly momentous events involving loved ones. We hypothesized that such nostalgic reverie would enhance gratitude. We further hypothesized that social connectedness, a sense of belongingness and acceptance, would mediate this link. Three methodologically diverse studies (correlational, longitudinal, experimental) tested these two hypotheses. In Study 1, those higher in trait nostalgia were more likely to evince gratitude. In longitudinal Study 2, trait nostalgia predicted gratitude 16 months later. In experimental Study 3, participants who listened to a nostalgic song reported more gratitude than those who listened to a cheerful control song. In each study, social connectedness mediated nostalgia’s association with (Studies 1-2), and causal effect on (Study 3), gratitude: nostalgia increases gratitude via heightened social connectedness.