Longing is in the memory of the beholder: Collective nostalgia content determines the method members will support to make their group great again

Pro-diversity Intervention Improves Poles’ Intergoup Attitudes by Increasing Collective Nostalgia for More Open Polish Society

“…Specifically, our results show that teaching about the history of coexistence between majority and minority groups in a naturalistic setting stimulates a sense of nostalgia for a more open society of the past and simultaneously decreases nostalgia for a homogenous society. Thus, reliable historical knowledge emerges as a possible source of nostalgia, which goes beyond the typical short instructions used to induce participants' collective nostalgia (e.g., Lammers & Baldwin, 2020;Wohl et al, 2020b). The current research also demonstrates that collective nostalgia for an open society (alongside greater interest in local history) is a reliable mediator of the effects of learning about historical ethnic diversity on more tolerant intergroup attitudes, which contributes to the broader literature on prejudice reduction (Paluck & Green, 2009;Stefaniak & Bilewicz, 2016).…”

“…Collective Nostalgia for an Open and for a Homogenous Society The two types of collective nostalgia were measured with one item each taken from Wohl et al (2020b). We asked participants about the extent to which they longed for times "when Poland was more ethnically diverse" and "when Poles were more culturally homogenous".…”

“…The key to understanding whether positive or negative outcomes of collective nostalgia prevail lies in the content of the emotion, i.e., the specific aspects of the collective past that group members long to bring back to the present (Lammers & Baldwin, 2020;Wohl et al, 2020a and b). As evidenced by Wohl et al (2020b), the content of nostalgia is malleable: when American participants were manipulated to think of a time in America's past that made them nostalgic for when America was more open to other cultures, they expressed more acceptance of immigrants. Conversely, when they were manipulated to nostalgize about a time in America's past when American society was more homogenous, participants expressed less acceptance of immigrants.…”

Days of Future Past: Concerns for the Group’s Future Prompt Longing for Its Past (and Ways to Reclaim It)

“…The reconsolidation process is, in part, dependent on the (perceived) source of threat experienced, which can be easily manipulated by political leaders. Wohl, Stefaniak, and Smeekes (2020), for example, predicted and found that when people feel (or are manipulated to feel) existential threat stemming from unwanted social and cultural change, they long for a past in which their society was more culturally and religiously homogenous (and experience homogeneity-focused nostalgia ). Conversely, a belief that the future of the group is threatened by hostility toward out-groups, which deviates from the group’s moral core, elicited nostalgia for a time in which the society was more open to cultural and religious diversity (i.e., openness-focused nostalgia ).…”

Different Pasts for Different Political Folk: Political Orientation Predicts Collective Nostalgia Content

“…As such, when group members come to believe that their group is becoming discontinuous, they often turn back to the past, as it provides an anchor in the midst of uncertainty (Wohl et al, 2020a). This is typically accomplished psychologically via collective nostalgic reverie (i.e., wistful reflection)-a group-based emotion that helps bridge the past with the present (Wildschut et al, 2014;Sedikides and Wildschut, 2019;Wohl et al, 2020b). By reliving the past through collective nostalgia, the group member symbolically rekindles bonds with the ingroup's past, a process that can confer psychological equanimity.…”