TY - JOUR
T1 - Pancultural nostalgia
T2 - Prototypical conceptions across cultures
AU - Hepper, Erica G.
AU - Wildschut, Tim
AU - Sedikides, Constantine
AU - Ritchie, Timothy D.
AU - Yung, Yiu Fai
AU - Hansen, Nina
AU - Abakoumkin, Georgios
AU - Arikan, Gizem
AU - Cisek, Sylwia Z.
AU - Demassosso, Didier B.
AU - Gebauer, Jochen E.
AU - Gerber, J. P.
AU - González, Roberto
AU - Kusumi, Takashi
AU - Misra, Girishwar
AU - Rusu, Mihaela
AU - Ryan, Oisín
AU - Stephan, Elena
AU - Ad, Ad J.
AU - Zhou, Xinyue
PY - 2014/8
Y1 - 2014/8
N2 - Nostalgia is a frequently experienced complex emotion, understood by laypersons in the United Kingdom and United States of America to (a) refer prototypically to fond, self-relevant, social memories and (b) be more pleasant (e.g., happy, warm) than unpleasant (e.g., sad, regretful). This research examined whether people across cultures conceive of nostalgia in the same way. Students in 18 countries across 5 continents (N = 1,704) rated the prototypicality of 35 features of nostalgia. The samples showed high levels of agreement on the rank-order of features. In all countries, participants rated previously identified central (vs. peripheral) features as more prototypical of nostalgia, and showed greater interindividual agreement regarding central (vs. peripheral) features. Cluster analyses revealed subtle variation among groups of countries with respect to the strength of these pancultural patterns. All except African countries manifested the same factor structure of nostalgia features. Additional exemplars generated by participants in an open-ended format did not entail elaboration of the existing set of 35 features. Findings identified key points of cross-cultural agreement regarding conceptions of nostalgia, supporting the notion that nostalgia is a pancultural emotion.
AB - Nostalgia is a frequently experienced complex emotion, understood by laypersons in the United Kingdom and United States of America to (a) refer prototypically to fond, self-relevant, social memories and (b) be more pleasant (e.g., happy, warm) than unpleasant (e.g., sad, regretful). This research examined whether people across cultures conceive of nostalgia in the same way. Students in 18 countries across 5 continents (N = 1,704) rated the prototypicality of 35 features of nostalgia. The samples showed high levels of agreement on the rank-order of features. In all countries, participants rated previously identified central (vs. peripheral) features as more prototypical of nostalgia, and showed greater interindividual agreement regarding central (vs. peripheral) features. Cluster analyses revealed subtle variation among groups of countries with respect to the strength of these pancultural patterns. All except African countries manifested the same factor structure of nostalgia features. Additional exemplars generated by participants in an open-ended format did not entail elaboration of the existing set of 35 features. Findings identified key points of cross-cultural agreement regarding conceptions of nostalgia, supporting the notion that nostalgia is a pancultural emotion.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84905111948&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/a0036790
DO - 10.1037/a0036790
M3 - Article
C2 - 24866530
AN - SCOPUS:84905111948
SN - 1528-3542
VL - 14
SP - 733
EP - 747
JO - Emotion
JF - Emotion
IS - 4
ER -