The discovery, published in the journal ‘Cognition and Emotion,’ is important because maintaining close relationships with others is essential for our health and well-being, explain researchers from the University of Buffalo (USA) and the University of Kyoto (Japan).
Previous studies have shown that people who have friends and confidants are happier with their lives and are less likely to suffer from depression. They also have a lower likelihood of dying prematurely.
Having strong ties with other people also provides valuable support during difficult times, and close relationships appear to be particularly important. However, our social circles tend to shrink as we age.
In this new and groundbreaking study, the authors conducted three investigations into the links between nostalgia and the size of a person’s social network.
In the first experiment, a group of university students in the USA was surveyed about their level of nostalgia and their friendships. Nostalgia was measured by asking questions like "How important is it to you to remember nostalgic experiences?" and "How often do you experience nostalgia?" Other questions addressed their motivation to make new friends, to maintain existing friendships, and how many people were part of their social circle.
The students had an average age of 19 years. They had an average of seven people they were very close to, so close that they would find it difficult to imagine life without them. They also had another 21 people who were still important to them.
Analysis of their responses showed that those who claimed to be more nostalgic also placed more importance on maintaining their friendships and had more close and meaningful relationships.
The second experiment examined whether the same held true for non-student adults in the USA. A group of adults answered the same questions as the students and also completed a brief personality test.
The participants, with an average age of 40 years, had smaller social networks than the students. On average, they had five people they were very close to and another 14 who were still important to them. Once again, those who were more nostalgic tended to make more effort to maintain their friendships and had more close and meaningful relationships. This held true regardless of other personality traits, such as extroversion.
The third experiment used data from a longitudinal study conducted in the Netherlands (the LISS, Longitudinal Internet Studies for Social Sciences) to examine the effect of nostalgia on social networks over a period of seven years.
It was found that participants became more nostalgic as they aged. When surveyed in 2013, they scored an average of 3.95 on nostalgia (on a scale of seven). By 2019, this score had increased to 4.21.
Participants who scored high or medium on nostalgia maintained the same number of strong social ties during this period, meaning people they could talk to about important matters. In contrast, those with low levels of nostalgia had 18% fewer close relationships.
Taken together, the three results indicate that the tendency to fondly remember happy moments spent with others helps us understand the importance of those relationships and motivates us to maintain them.
"People who feel nostalgic more often and value those memories are more aware of their important relationships and the need to cultivate them," said researcher Kuan-Ju Huang, a doctoral student at the University of Kyoto. "This means that these friendships can last longer, even as we age and our lives, interests, and responsibilities change."
Huang acknowledges that he himself is nostalgic and explains how this feeling can arise at any stage of life: "I started my doctorate as an international student in Japan during the Covid pandemic. During that time, I noticed that many people, including myself, found comfort in listening to nostalgic music and watching old videos."
"There is evidence showing that young adults report nostalgic feelings slightly more frequently than middle-aged adults, while older adults exhibit significantly higher levels of nostalgia," he explains. "High levels of nostalgia in young adults and older adults occur for different reasons. Life transitions during youth, such as leaving the family home or starting college or work life, can trigger the psychological need to find comfort in nostalgia."
As he points out, "young adults may fondly remember their high school years or family moments when facing the challenges of transitioning to adulthood. For older adults, nostalgia is often more related to experiences of loss and feelings of a limited future."