Nostalgia for What and to What End? Multi-Dimensional National Nostalgia and its Relationship With National Identification and Political Preferences

Abstract

Research on group-based nostalgia has begun exploring how different ways of representing the pasts shapes our group belonging and political preferences. So far, this body of work has focused on measuring levels of nostalgia, at the expense of considering what people are nostalgic for. The present paper develops a bottom-up approach to examining how the content of national nostalgia links with specific social and political attitudes. Across two studies, drawing on open-ended and close-ended survey data from the UK (Study 1, N = 3,005, and Study 2, N = 318), USA (Study 2, N = 305), and Sweden (Study 2, N = 234), we develop and test a multidimensional national nostalgia (MDNN) scale which captures nostalgia for communality, achievements, and power/status. Across the three countries we find persistent evidence that nostalgia for power/status is associated with stronger national identification, right-wing ideology, and right-wing party favorability, while nostalgia for communality and achievements vary in their associations with political preferences. Our findings reveal the various forms that national nostalgia can take, its implications for linking longing with belonging, as well as the variations that can occur in different national and political contexts.