National Nostalgia and Prostalgia Predict Support toward the Black Lives Matter Movement and Creating a New Normal Following the Pandemic

Abstract

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and the COVID-19 pandemic are introducing cultural change in the United States. Past research demonstrates that cultural change can be perceived as threatening when compared to cultural stability. Thus, the change brought upon by the BLM protests and the COVID-19 pandemic may be reducing support for the BLM movement and reducing support for creating a new normal after the pandemic (i.e., creating new social norms). Based on the Cultural Inertia Model, we predicted that highlighting the BLM protests and the COVID-19 pandemic as agents of change would hinder support for each agent of change. We also hypothesized that psychological anchors (i.e., national nostalgia) and psychological propellers (i.e., national prostalgia) would serve as individual difference measures that hinder or facilitate support toward the BLM movement and creating a new normal following the pandemic. Our findings demonstrated that highlighting the BLM protests and the pandemic as agents of change did not cause differences in support for the BLM movement or creating a new normal following the pandemic. However, national nostalgia and prostalgia served as individual difference measures that respectively reduced and facilitated support for the BLM movement and the creation of new social norms following the pandemic.

Wounds that never heal: The proliferation of prejudice toward immigrants in the United States.

“…Although national nostalgia leads to more prejudice toward immigrants (A. D. Armenta et al, 2018;Smeekes et al, 2015), our preliminary data suggest that national prostalgia may serve as a prejudice reduction tool. In one study, for example, national prostalgia positively predicted attitudes toward Latinx immigrants and negatively predicted in-group protection and out-group derogation (A. D. Armenta et al, 2018). Future studies could address, through an experimental paradigm, whether national prostalgia causally leads to prejudice reduction toward immigrants and whether certain groups of individuals (e.g., those with a particular political affiliation) are more likely to reap the benefits of national prostalgia.…”

“…If longing for the good old days predicts prejudice, it may also be the case that attention to the future reduces prejudice. "National prostalgia," a variable that we formally define as longing for the way in which Americans and American society will be in the future, may be advantageous for intergroup relations (A. D. Armenta et al, 2018). Although national nostalgia leads to more prejudice toward immigrants (A. D. Armenta et al, 2018;Smeekes et al, 2015), our preliminary data suggest that national prostalgia may serve as a prejudice reduction tool.…”

“…"National prostalgia," a variable that we formally define as longing for the way in which Americans and American society will be in the future, may be advantageous for intergroup relations (A. D. Armenta et al, 2018). Although national nostalgia leads to more prejudice toward immigrants (A. D. Armenta et al, 2018;Smeekes et al, 2015), our preliminary data suggest that national prostalgia may serve as a prejudice reduction tool. In one study, for example, national prostalgia positively predicted attitudes toward Latinx immigrants and negatively predicted in-group protection and out-group derogation (A. D. Armenta et al, 2018).…”

“…The results consistently indicated that participants who were primed to feel nationally nostalgic expressed more opposition toward Muslim immigrant rights than those who did not feel nationally nostalgic. National nostalgia has also been found to be negatively correlated with attitudes toward Latinx immigrants and positively correlated with in-group protection and out-group derogation (A. D. Armenta et al, 2018).…”