Nostalgia proneness and empathy: Generality, underlying mechanism, and implications for prosocial behavior.
OBJECTIVE
Nostalgia is a sentimental longing for one's past. We examined the hypotheses (rooted in attachment theory and research) that nostalgia prone individuals, by virtue of their greater attachment security, are more empathic and enact more prosocial behavior.


METHOD
In five studies, testing 1,923 participants (Nrange  = 132-823, 52.42% women, Agerange  = 8-90 years), we measured nostalgia proneness and affective empathy. Additionally, we measured cognitive empathy in Study 3, attachment security in Studies 4-5, and prosocial behavior in Study 5.


RESULTS
Nostalgia proneness was positively related to affective empathy among younger and older adults (Studies 1, 3-5) and among children (Study 2). This association was stronger for affective empathy than cognitive empathy (Study 3). Also, attachment security mediated the relation between nostalgia proneness and affective empathy (Studies 4-5). Finally, nostalgia prone individuals were more likely to engage in prosocial behavior, and this relation was serially mediated by attachment security and affective empathy (Study 5).


CONCLUSION
The findings establish the empathic and prosocial character of nostalgia prone individuals, and clarify their personality profile.
['Juhl|Jacob|J|0000-0003-4833-8062', 'Wildschut|Tim|T|', 'Sedikides|Constantine|C|', 'Diebel|Tara|T|', 'Cheung|Wing-Yee|WY|', 'Vingerhoets|Ad J J M|AJJM|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D000339:Affect D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D000533:Altruism D002648:Child D004645:Empathy D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009769:Object Attachment D010551:Personality D055815:Young Adult
nostalgia proneness empathy prosocial behavior attachment theory donating