The psychological benefits of nostalgia
Rashi Goel
Marketing strategies and self-mastery tips you won't find in B-schools. Ex-leader at Amazon, Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, L'Oréal. Voted by ET as Best Marketing Leader in India I Top 50 Influential APAC Marketers
When Humphrey Bogart says, ‘We’ll always have Paris, ’or when Bhupinder sings, ‘Dil dhoonta hai phir wahi fursat key raat di n,’ that’s nostalgia.
Each one of us has a time machine built into our brains. Today’s newsletter explores scientifically proven psychological benefits of Nostalgia through a visual essay… because pictures evoke nostalgia better than only words can!
What is nostalgia?
Nostalgia is a Greek word that means pain caused by a longing for the past.
Nostalgia is about remembering loved ones (a puppy from our childhood), milestones (my 16th birthday when all my friends came home), and experiences (steaming hot soup and spring rolls on a chilly winter evening in Kasauli).
Nostalgia is a visceral remembering of even the minutest details from our past…. and a deep longing for moments that have passed.
Nostalgia is as much about who we used to be as it is about what we shared with others.
Old memories are ripe with the scent of pleasanter times. Times when we were better versions of ourselves and the world was simpler.
No one says it better than Don Draper, “Nostalgia is a time machine. It takes us back to a place where we know we are loved” , in a new campaign to sell a new Kodak product.
Nostalgia feels bitter at first, the sourness of good times that are long gone. But it leaves behind a lingering sweetness because it elevates our mood and leaves us feeling optimistic.
What’s more, nostalgia is a good thing.
Scientific experiments have proven multiple benefits.
There are many studies on the benefits of nostalgia. I share four.
1) Nostalgia makes us happier
Participants who wrote a nostalgic essay used more happier words than a control group that wrote about an ordinary event (University of South Hampton).
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2) Nostalgia makes us optimistic
Participants who listened to a nostalgic song felt more optimistic than those who listened to a song from contemporary times (University of South Hampton)
3) Nostalgia makes waiting easier
Some people waiting for a table were given a questionnaire with a blurb, “nostalgia-memories of our good old days.” Those who saw the message felt their wait time had been only 5.8 minutes, while those who did not get this blurb thought they had waited for 8.33 minutes. Source: Journal of Consumer Research.
4) Nostalgia makes us more charitable
Consumers asked to think about their past were willing to pay more for a set of products than those asked to think about their future. Source: University of South Hampton.
Because of all these beneficial effects, Nostalgia is especially triggered by adverse conditions.
Adverse conditions like… a pandemic.
This happens because our brain seeks solace in pleasant memories of our past in order to escape from stress about an uncertain future.
As I dug deeper, I discovered that there are, in fact, four types of nostalgia - Postalgia, Newstalgia, Fauxstalgia, and Do-over Nostalgia.
I look at each next week, along with some super interesting examples of brand campaigns examples for each.
Sources:
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With 30 years in retail, F&B, and cinema, I bring diverse expertise as an ice cream maker, biker, entrepreneur, and strategist. At Emoi Ice Creams, I lead with passion, driving innovation in premium frozen desserts.
8 个月Brands often use nostalgia as a tactic to evoke warm emotions about their products. It's as if they are suggesting, "Remember the good old days? Well, buy this and experience them again!" Whether it's through retro packaging or vintage aesthetics, they understand how to appeal to our sentimental side; it's a clever marketing strategy that convinces us that old-fashioned products are somehow superior. they're not just tugging at our heartstrings, but also at our purse strings ??