We addressed phenotypic and genetic research questions regarding nostalgia and self-enhancement. At the phenotypic level (178 university students; Study 1), we found that nostalgia was moderately associated with self-enhancement. At the genotypic level (232 twin pairs; Study 2), we found that nostalgia, self-enhancement, and their relation were largely heritable. Our findings shed light on two heavily investigated traits and open up exciting research directions.
AkaikeH. (1987). Factor-analysis and AIC. Psychometrika, 52, 317–332. doi:10.1007/BF02294359
2.
AlickeM. D. (1985). Global self-evaluation as determined by the desirability and controllability of trait adjectives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 1621–1630.
3.
AlickeM. D.SedikidesC. (2009). Self-enhancement and self-protection: What they are and what they do. European Review of Social Psychology, 20, 1–48. doi:10.1080/10463280802613866
4.
BaldwinM.BiernatM.LandauM. J. (2015). Remembering the real me: Nostalgia offers a window to the intrinsic self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108, 128–147. doi:10.1037/a0038033
5.
BaldwinM.LandauM. J. (2014). Exploring nostalgia’s influence on psychological growth. Self and Identity, 13, 162–177. doi:10.1080/15298868.2013.772320
BeerJ. S.HughesB. L. (2010). Neural systems of social comparison and the “above-average” effect. NeuroImage, 49, 2671–2679.
8.
BokerS. M.NealeM. C.MaesH. H.WildeM. J.SpiegelM.BrickT. R.…BrandmaierA. (2012). OpenMx 1.2 user guide. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia, The OpenMX Project.
9.
BollenK. A. (1989). Structural equations with latent variables. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
10.
BrislinR. W. (1980). Translation and content analysis of oral and written material. In TriandisH.BerryJ. W. (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology: Methodology (pp. 389–444). Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.
11.
BrownJ. D. (1986). Evaluations of self and others: Self-enhancement biases in social judgments. Social Cognition, 4, 353–376.
12.
CaiH.WuL.ShiY.GuR.SedikidesC. (2016). Self-enhancement among Westerners and Easterners: A cultural neuroscience approach. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. Advance online publication. doi:10.1093/scan/nsw072
13.
CapraraG. V.FagnaniC.AlessandriG.StecaP.GigantescoA.SforzaL. L. C.StaziM. A. (2009). Human optimal functioning: The genetics of positive orientation towards self, life, and the future. Behavior Genetics, 39, 277–284. doi:10.1007/s10519-009-9267-y
14.
CampbellD. T.FiskeD. T. (1959). Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 56, 81–105.
15.
ChenJ.LiX.ZhangJ.NatsuakiM. N.LeveL. D.HaroldG. T.…GeX. (2013). The Beijing Twin Study (BeTwiSt): A longitudinal study of child and adolescent development. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 16, 91–97. doi:10.1017/thg.2012.115
16.
CheungW. Y.SedikidesC.WildschutT. (2016). Induced nostalgia increases optimism (via social connectedness and self-esteem) among individuals high, but not low, in trait nostalgia. Personality and Individual Differences, 90, 283–288. doi:10.1016/j.paid.20215.11.028
17.
CheungW. Y.WildschutT.SedikidesC.HepperE. G.ArndtJ.VingerhoetsA. J. J. M. (2013). Back to the future: Nostalgia increases optimism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39, 1484–1496. doi:10.1177/0146167213499187
18.
CohenJ. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
19.
DalbertC. (1999). The world is more just for me than generally: About the personal belief in a just world scale’s validity. Social Justice Research, 12, 79–98.
20.
DavisF. (1977). Nostalgia, identity, and the current nostalgia wave. Journal of Popular Culture, 11, 414–425. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.1977.00414.x
21.
DavisF. (1979). Yearning for yesterday: A sociology of nostalgia. New York, NY: Free Press.
22.
GabrielY. (1993). Organizational nostalgia: Reflections on “The Golden Age.” In FinemanS. (Ed.), Emotion in organizations (pp. 118–141). London, England: Sage.
23.
GuentherC. L.AlickeM. D. (2010). Deconstructing the better-than-average effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 755–770. doi:10.1037/a0020959
24.
HepperE. G.RitchieT. D.SedikidesC.WildschutT. (2012). Odyssey’s end: Lay conceptions of nostalgia reflect its original Homeric meaning. Emotion, 12, 102–119. doi:10.1037/A0025167
25.
HepperE. G.RobertsonS.WildschutT.SedikidesC.RoutledgeC. (2016). The time capsule: Nostalgia shields wellbeing from limited time horizons. Manuscript under review, University of Surrey, UK.
JohnsonW.PenkeL.SpinathF. M. (2011). Heritability in the era of molecular genetics: Some thoughts for understanding genetic influences on behavioural traits. European Journal of Personality, 25, 254–266. doi:10.1002/per.836
28.
JuhlJ.RoutledgeC.ArndtJ.SedikidesC.WildschutT. (2010). Fighting the future with the past: Nostalgia buffers existential threat. Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 309–314. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2010.02.006
29.
KaplanH. A. (1987). The psychopathology of nostalgia. Psychoanalytic Review, 74, 465–486.
30.
KlineR. B. (1998). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
31.
LindellM. K.WhitneyD. J. (2001). Accounting for common method variance in cross-sectional research designs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 114–121.
32.
LoehlinJ. C. (1996). The Cholesky approach: A cautionary note. Behavior Genetics, 26, 65–69.
33.
LuoY. L. L.CaiH.SedikidesC.SongH. (2014). Distinguishing communal narcissism from agentic narcissism: A behavior genetics analysis on the agency-communion model of narcissism. Journal of Research in Personality, 49, 52–58. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2014.01.001
34.
LuoY. L. L.ShiY.CaiH.WuM.SongH. (2014). Liking for name predicts happiness: A behavioral genetic analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 69, 156–161. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.05.025
35.
MartinN. G.EavesL. J.KearseyM., J.DaviesP. (1978). The power of the classical twin study. Heredity, 40, 97–116.
36.
McAdamsD. P.ReynoldsJ.LewisM.PattenA. H.BowmanP. J. (2001). When bad things turn good and good things turn bad: Sequences of redemption and contamination in life narratives and their relation to psychosocial adaptation in midlife adults and in students. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 474–485. doi:10.1177/0146167201274008
37.
McGueM.BouchardT. J. (1984). Adjustment of twin data for the effects of age and sex. Behavior Genetics, 14, 325–343. doi:10.1007/BF01080045
38.
MorewedgeC. K. (2013). It was a most unusual time: How memory bias engenders nostalgic preferences. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 26, 319–326. doi:10.1002/bdm.1767
39.
NealeM. C.CardonL. R. (1992). Methodology for genetic studies of twins and families. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.
40.
NeissM. B.SedikidesC.StevensonJ. (2002). Self-esteem: A behavioural genetic perspective. European Journal of Personality, 16, 351–367. doi:10.1002/Per.456
41.
NeissM. B.SedikidesC.StevensonJ. (2006). Genetic influences on level and stability of self-esteem. Self and Identity, 5, 247–266. doi:10.1080/15298860600662106
42.
PlominR.DeFriesJ. C.McCleannG. E.McGuffinP. (2008). Behavioral genetics (5th ed., pp. 316–333). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
43.
PurcellS. (2002). Variance components models for gene–environment interaction in twin analysis. Twin Research, 5, 554–571.
RosenbergM. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
46.
RoutledgeC.ArndtJ.SedikidesC.WildschutT. (2008). A blast from the past: The terror management function of nostalgia. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 132–140. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2006.11.001
47.
RoutledgeC.ArndtJ.WildschutT.SedikidesC.HartC. M.JuhlJ.…SchlotzW. (2011). The past makes the present meaningful: Nostalgia as an existential resource. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 638–652. doi:10.1037/A0024292
48.
RoutledgeC.WildschutT.SedikidesC.JuhlJ. (2013). Nostalgia as a resource for psychological health and well-being. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7/11, 808–818. doi:10.1111/spc3.12070
49.
SedikidesC.AlickeM. D. (2012). Self-enhancement and self-protection motives. In RyanR. M. (Ed.), Oxford handbook of motivation (pp. 303–322). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
50.
SedikidesC.GaertnerL.CaiH. (2015). On the panculturality of self-enhancement and self-protection motivation: The case for the universality of self-esteem. In ElliotA. J. (Ed.), Advances in motivation science (Vol. 2, pp. 185–241). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. doi:10.1016/bs.adms.2015.04.002
51.
SedikidesC.GreggA. P. (2008). Self-enhancement: Food for thought. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 102–116. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00068.x
52.
SedikidesC.WildschutT. (2016a). Past forward: Nostalgia as a motivational force. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1539.doi:10.1016/j.tics.2016.01.008
53.
SedikidesC.WildschutT. (2016b). Nostalgia: A bittersweet emotion that confers psychological health benefits. In JohnsonJ.WoodA. (Eds.), The handbook of positive clinical psychology (pp. 25–136). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
54.
SedikidesC.WildschutT.ArndtJ.RoutledgeC. (2008). Nostalgia past, present, and future. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 304–307. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00595.x
55.
SedikidesC.WildschutT.RoutledgeC.ArndtJ.HepperE. G.ZhouX. (2015). To nostalgize: Mixing memory with affect and desire. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 51, 189–273. doi:10.1016/bs.aesp.2014.10.001
56.
StephanE.SedikidesC.WildschutT. (2012). Mental travel into the past: Differentiating recollections of nostalgic, ordinary, and positive events. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 290–298. doi:10.1002/ejsp.1865.
57.
StephanE.SedikidesC.WildschutT.CheungW. Y.RoutledgeC.ArndtJ. (2015). Nostalgia-evoked inspiration: Mediating mechanisms and motivational implications. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 1395–1410. doi:10.1177/0146167215596985
58.
StephanE.WildschutT.SedikidesC.ZhouX.HeW.RoutledgeC.…VingerhoetsA. J. (2014). The mnemonic mover: Nostalgia regulates avoidance and approach motivation. Emotion, 14, 545–561. doi:10.1037/a0035673
59.
TakahashiT.YamagataS.KijmaN.ShigemasuK.OnoY.AndoJ. (2007). Continuity and change in behavioral inhibition and activation systems: A longitudinal behavioral genetic study. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1616–1625. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.04.030
60.
TaylorS. E.LernerJ. S.ShermanD. K.SageR. M.McDowellN. K. (2003). Portrait of the self-enhancer: Well-adjusted and well-liked or maladjusted and friendless?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 165–176. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.1.165
61.
The New Oxford Dictionary of English. (1998). (PearsallJ., Ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
VernonP. A.VillaniV. C.VickersL. C.HarrisJ. A. (2008). A behavioral genetic investigation of the Dark Triad and the Big 5. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 445–452. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.09.007
64.
VessM.ArndtJ.RoutledgeC.SedikidesC.WildschutT. (2012). Nostalgia as a resource for the self. Self and Identity, 11, 273–284. doi:10.1080/15298868.2010.521452
65.
WildschutT.SedikidesC.ArndtJ.RoutledgeC. (2006). Nostalgia: Content, triggers, functions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 975–993. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.91.5.975
66.
WilliamsL. J.HartmanN.CavazotteF. (2010). Method variance and marker variables: A review and comprehensive CFA marker technique. Organizational Research Methods, 13, 477–514. doi:10.1177/1094428110366036
67.
ZhouX.SedikidesC.WildschutT.GaoD. G. (2008). Counteracting loneliness: On the restorative function of nostalgia. Psychological Science, 19, 1023–1029. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02194.x
68.
ZhouX.WildschutT.SedikidesC.ChenX.VingerhoetsA. J. J. M. (2012). Heartwarming memories: Nostalgia maintains physiological comfort. Emotion, 12, 678–684. doi:10.1037/a0028236
69.
ZhouX.WildschutT.SedikidesC.ShiK.FengC. (2012). Nostalgia: The gift that keeps on giving. Journal of Consumer Research, 39, 39–50. doi:10.1086/662199
70.
ZimbardoP. G.BoydJ. N. (1999). Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable individual differences metric. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1271–1288. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1271
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
