A Critical Review on the influence of Nostalgia in undermining Psychological and Social Health

Abstract

Nostalgia, originally considered a neurological disease, has evolved into a predominantly bittersweet albeit positive emotion linked to enhanced well-being and social connectedness. However, recent findings demonstrate that nostalgia also leads to negative affect, poor psychological well-being, and promote socially undesirable attitudes and behaviours. Thus, this critical review aims to synthesize existing evidence that focus on the negative consequences of nostalgia at the individual, relational and societal level. At the individual level, individual differences such as personality and attachment style, sociodemographic characteristics, and coping strategies intensify nostalgia’s maladaptive effect and worsening psychological distress. At the social level, nostalgia through ingroup identification leads to out-group hostility, and intergroup conflict, particularly at the nationalistic or collective contexts. Further, it is also found that nostalgia influences ethical decision-making by promoting maladaptive behaviours in individuals such as resisting social innovation. There is also a need for longitudinal, experimental, and cross-cultural research to get a deeper insight into the complex mechanisms of nostalgia and unravel its boundary conditions. Implications for political discourse, clinical practice and academic research is discussed.