Nostalgia and identity in song lyrics.

Abstract

The content of original song lyrics was manipulated to explore the relationship of nostalgia to identity and social connectedness. A sample of 96 undergraduates rated six attributes of four sets of lyrics and completed measures of identity exploration, styles of maintaining identity, nostalgia for their past, and nostalgia for a general historical past. Lyrical nostalgia was not a function of how happy, sad, meaningful or liked the lyrics were, but was characterized by the irretrievability of the past. More active identity exploration was associated with higher ratings of lyrical nostalgia. The more actively participants were exploring their identity, the more closely they related to and found meaningful lyrics that emphasize the influence of the past on identity. Consistent with the greater social connectedness of individuals prone to personal nostalgia, nostalgia for one's past was related to reliance on the standards of others in defining identity, and higher ratings of liking, meaning, and relevance for other-directed lyrics. By contrast, participants more nostalgic for an historical past rely less heavily on others to define their identity, and they related more closely to the solitary identity lyrics.

Research Note: Nostalgia as the Future for Branding Entertainment Media? The Consumption of Personal and Historical Nostalgic Films and Its Effects

“…This assumption can also be supported by studies coming from the social psychological field that ascribe those positive functions to nostalgia (e.g. Batcho, 1995Batcho, , 2007Batcho, DaRin, Nave, & Yaworsky, 2008;Sedikides et al, 2009;Wildschut et al, 2011). Furthermore, nostalgia helps to form, maintain, and rehabilitate identity, which could be another reason why audiences are attracted to it (Wildschut et al, 2006(Wildschut et al, , 2011 [see PausHasebrink and Hasebrink (2015) as well as Ots and Hartmann (2015)].…”

The meaning of rental second homes and places: the owners’ perspectives

“…This is one reason why people who are away from home are especially likely to feel nostalgic during the holidays and why so many people travel to be with family and friends. (Batcho, DaRin, Nave, & Yaworsky, 2008).…”

Nostalgie 2.0

“…Pour soutenir leurs arguments théoriques, Hallegatte et Marticotte (2014) indiquent que la croyance au déclin est indépendante de l'attrait pour les choses du passé, comme mesuré par des échelles issues de la psychologie environnementale (Schindler et Holbrook, 2003). En outre, l'index de nostalgie de Holbrook (1993de Holbrook ( , 1994 n'est pas corrélé avec l'inventaire nostalgique de Batcho (1995) (Batcho, 2007;Batcho et al, 2008), qui est une échelle établie en psychologie . Cependant, les auteurs ne fournissent aucune donnée empirique pour soutenir directement leur démonstration théorique, selon laquelle la croyance au déclin ne peut être considérée comme un indicateur de la propension à la nostalgie.…”