Fighting the future with the past: Nostalgia buffers existential threat

Three studies tested and supported the proposition that nostalgia buffers existential threat. All studies measured nostalgia proneness and manipulated death awareness (mortality salience; MS). In Study 1, at low, but not high, levels of nostalgia proneness, participants in the MS condition responded less positively to an identity threat than participants in the control condition. In Study 2, at low, but not high, levels of nostalgia proneness, participants in the MS condition evidenced greater levels of death anxiety than participants in the control condition. In Study 3, at high, but not low, levels of nostalgia proneness, participants in the MS condition indicated greater feelings of state nostalgia than participants in the control condition.