Using the past to promote a peaceful future: Nostalgia proneness mitigates existential threat induced nationalistic self-sacrifice

Abstract

Recent research has demonstrated that nostalgia is a source of meaning in life that people utilize when managing existential concerns. The current studies further explored the existential function of nostalgia by testing the prediction that nostalgia decreases ideologically extreme defenses against existential threat (i.e., self-sacrifice on behalf of one's nation or religion). Results supported this hypothesis. In Study 1, mortality salience increased willingness to engage in nationalistic self-sacrifice for those low, but not high, in trait nostalgia. In Study 2, manipulated nostalgia mitigated the relationship between death-thought accessibility and willingness to engage in religious self-sacrifice.