When memory meets anxiety: Collective nostalgia (civic- and homogeneity-focused) and collective angst shape strong leader support and voting behaviour

Elections are moments when nations confront uncertainty about their future and re-examine their past. The present research investigated how two temporal, group-based emotions jointly shape political preferences and behaviour: collective nostalgia (longing for the group’s past) and collective angst (concern for the group’s future). We focused on the 2024 United States federal election, examining how civic-focused nostalgia (longing for civility and institutional trust) and homogeneity-focused nostalgia (longing for cultural and moral uniformity), together with collective angst, predicted three outcomes: support for strong leadership, voting intentions, and actual voting behaviour. Participants (N = 282) completed measures of these constructs pre-election (Time 1), with voting behaviour assessed post-election (Time 2). Results revealed that both civic- and homogeneity-focused nostalgia were associated with greater general support for strong leadership, but collective angst only predicted such support when civic nostalgia was low. Homogeneity-focused nostalgia robustly predicted Trump voting intentions and behaviour, whereas civic nostalgia predicted support for Harris. Collective angst interacted with homogeneity nostalgia to amplify pro-Trump voting, suggesting that anxiety about the group’s future magnifies the political consequences of longing for a homogeneous past. These findings illuminate how emotional orientations towards the past and future jointly guide democratic decision-making.