The I in us: personality influences the expression of collective nostalgia

Anna Stefaniak*, Michael J. A. Wohl, Julie Blais, Scott Pruysers

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Inspired by calls for a greater integration of personality and social psychology, we tested whether personality traits (measured using the HEXACO model) predicted the expression of collective nostalgia-a group-based emotion that reflects sentimental longing for the past of one's social group. Results of a representative sample study conducted among Canadians showed that personality traits predicted the content of the collective nostalgia group members felt, above and beyond individual level socio-demographic characteristics and political orientation. Openness-focused nostalgia was predicted by greater openness to experience, agreeableness, and emotionality, whereas nostalgia for a homogenous society of the past was predicted by lower scores on honesty-humility and openness to experiences as well as greater emotionality and agreeableness. These findings show that individual and group-level phenomena are intertwined, which may help explain intra-group variation in beliefs and behaviors.

Original languageEnglish
Article number111392
Number of pages6
JournalPersonality and Individual Differences
Volume187
Early online date16 Dec 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2022

Keywords

  • Collective nostalgia
  • Personality
  • HEXACO
  • Openness-focused nostalgia
  • Homogeneity-focused nostalgia
  • Political orientation

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