Nostalgia: When Finding Meaning Is a Piece of Cake
By Tim Wildschut & Constantine Sedikides
University of Southampton. April 29, 2025.
Counterclockwise from top left: The famous Madeleine cakes and tea, Marcel Proust honored on a French postal stamp, and Proust’s In search of lost time (1913).
But at the very instant when the mouthful of tea mixed with cake-crumbs touched my palate, I quivered, attentive to the extraordinary thing that was happening in me. A delicious pleasure had invaded me, isolated me, without my having any notion as to its cause. It had immediately made the vicissitudes of life unimportant to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory, acting in the same way that love acts, by filling me with a precious essence: or rather this essence was not in me, it was me. (Proust, 2013/2003, pp. 34-35)
Marcel Proust’s (1913/2003) Du côté de chez Swann (The way by Swann’s), part of his magnum opus, À la recherche du temps perdu (In search of lost time), is arguably the most celebrated literary treatise on nostalgia in modern times. It describes the emotion’s profound existential implications, probing how memories are shaped by the passage of time. The famous scene in the opening quotation relates how, upon tasting tea mixed with crumbs of a Madeleine (a small, shell-shaped cake), the narrator is suddenly flooded with vivid memories of his childhood. The moment represents how nostalgia is not merely a fleeting state but a complex existential experience that imbues life with meaning and aids in navigating its inherent challenges.
This article delves into the multifaceted nature of nostalgia, exploring its definition, its role in fostering meaning in life, and its capacity to serve as a homeostatic corrective against existential threats. Through a review of the literature, we will uncover how nostalgia functions as an existential emotion, offering solace and motivation in the face of life’s uncertainties. Before we proceed, however, let us first define our key constructs.
What is Nostalgia?
Nostalgia is “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past” (The New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1998, p. 1266) and “an affectionate feeling you have for the past, especially for a particularly happy time” (Collins English Dictionary, 2023). These dictionary definitions capture the essence of nostalgia as an emotion tied to the past, often evoking fond memories and a desire to relive moments that hold personal significance.
Prototype analyses, which examine laypersons’ understanding of a construct, align with these dictionary definitions. A prototype consists of the most common features or properties of members of a category, with some features being more central to the construct’s essence than others (Horowitz et al., 1982; Rosch, 1975). Central features of nostalgia include “the past,” “fond memories,” “rose-tinted memory,” “reliving,” “feeling,” “personal meaning,” “childhood/youth,” “social relationships,” “memorabilia/keepsakes,” “happiness,” “missing,” “longing/yearning,” and “return to the past” (Hepper et al., 2012). These features collectively paint a picture of nostalgia as an emotion that revolves around a personally important and somewhat idealized past, often focused on one’s childhood, close relationships, or significant life events such as birthdays, weddings, or graduations (Allison & Green, 2020; Wildschut et al., 2006).
Nostalgia is not merely a passive reminiscence; it involves active temporal retracing, fondness, tenderness, and joy. However, it also carries a tinge of yearning for moments that are irredeemably gone and a longing to return to them (Sedikides et al., 2015). Nostalgia carries a bittersweet affective signature, blending both positive and negative affect, yet the positive prevails (Leunissen et al., 2021; Sedikides & Wildschut, 2019). The emotion is experienced frequently, often several times a week, and transcends cultural and age boundaries (Hepper et al., 2014; Sedikides & Wildschut, 2022; Turner & Stanley, 2021).
Meaning in life refers to the subjective perception that one’s life has coherence (i.e., is consistent), purpose (i.e., is goal-oriented), and significance (i.e., matters; King et al., 2016), with recent research identifying the latter facet as being particularly influential (Costin & Vignoles, 2020). Here, however, we treat meaning in life as a unitary, inclusive construct. We will occasionally touch upon the search for meaning, which is typically triggered when individuals experience meaning deficits (Steger et al., 2008).
Existential coping refers to the ways in which individuals combat threats to meaning. It involves struggles to reassert meaning or pacify concerns about the precariousness of life (Greenberg et al., 2004). Nostalgia, as we will see, plays a crucial role in this existential coping process (Sedikides & Wildschut, 2018).
On Nostalgia’s Meaningfulness
Nostalgic reverie is deeply tied to a personally important and meaningful past. This connection between nostalgia and meaningfulness has been a recurring theme in literature, including poetry, novels, and memoirs (Batcho, 2023; Li et al., 2024). Empirical evidence supports the idea that nostalgia is positively associated with, and increases, meaning in life.
Several cross-sectional studies have demonstrated the link between nostalgia and meaning. In a study by Batcho et al. (2008), participants completed the Nostalgia Inventory (Batcho, 1995), which assesses the extent to which individuals miss various aspects of their past (e.g., “I miss my family,” “I miss vacations I went on,” “I miss TV shows, movies”). Participants also reported how meaningful they found four sets of song lyrics. The results revealed a positive correlation between nostalgia and the perceived meaningfulness of the song lyrics, especially those centered on interpersonal relationships—such as lyrics describing joyful moments with friends or a beloved uncle who had passed away.
The Southampton Nostalgia Scale (Sedikides et al., 2015), which asks participants to use a rating scale (e.g., a scale of 1-7 where 1 = Not at all, 7 = Very much) to indicate various aspects of their nostalgic experiences.
In another study, by Routledge et al. (2011, Study 1), participants brought to mind two of their favorite songs and also listened to two popular songs. For each song, they rated how “nostalgic” the song made them feel and, to measure meaning in life, how much the song made them feel that “life is worth living.” The findings showed that the more nostalgic participants felt, the more meaningful they perceived their lives to be. This positive association between nostalgia and meaning was further corroborated in a study by Routledge et al. (2011), where participants first completed the Southampton Nostalgia Scale (Sedikides et al., 2015), which asks participants to use a rating scale (e.g., a scale of 1-7 where 1 = Not at all, 7 = Very much) to indicate various aspects of their nostalgic experiences.
Participants then similarly completed two meaning scales: the Presence of Meaning in Life subscale of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (Steger et al., 2006; e.g., “I understand my life’s meaning”) and the Purpose in Life Scale (McGregor & Little, 1998; e.g., “My personal existence is purposeful and meaningful”). Statistical analyses found that nostalgia was positively associated with both meaning scales.
The positive relation between nostalgia and meaning has been replicated in numerous studies using diverse measures of both constructs (Karagoz & Ramkissoon, 2023; Wu et al., 2020). For instance, in a work setting, Leunissen et al. (2018, Study 1) found that employees who felt nostalgic about their organization in the past month were more likely to consider their work meaningful, as assessed by the Positive Meaning subscale of the Work and Meaning Inventory (Steger et al., 2012; e.g., “I have found a meaningful career”).
Establishing a correlational link between nostalgia and meaning in life is one thing; demonstrating that nostalgia causes changes in meaning in life is more challenging. To address this issue, researchers have used a range of experimental techniques to induce nostalgia (Wildschut & Sedikides, 2025), most prominent of which is the event reflection task (ERT)—a vivid autobiographical writing exercise. In the treatment condition, participants read a definition of nostalgia, reflect on a nostalgic event in their lives, immerse themselves in the experience, list keywords capturing the gist of it, and describe the experience and how it makes them feel. In the control condition, participants follow the same protocol but reflect on an ordinary event. Finally, participants complete a manipulation check to assess the level of felt nostalgia.
Experiments using the ERT have consistently shown that nostalgia increases meaning in life (Leunissen et al., 2018; Sedikides et al., 2018; van Tilburg et al., 2019). This effect holds even when the control condition involves reflecting on a desired future event, which would also be expected to infuse life with meaning (Feldman, 2013). However, participants who reflect on a nostalgic event report higher levels of meaning than those who reflect on a desired future event (Routledge et al., 2012, Experiment 1).
Nostalgia’s capacity to enhance meaning extends beyond healthy adults; it has also been shown to benefit vulnerable groups, such as Syrian refugees residing in Saudi Arabia (Wildschut et al., 2019) and people living with dementia (Ismail et al., 2018). Moreover, nostalgia confers meaning regardless of participants’ level of neuroticism (Frankenbach et al., 2021) or resilience (Wildschut et al., 2019). It can even enhance meaning vicariously, as demonstrated in studies where participants find meaning by reading someone else’s nostalgic remembrances (Wildschut et al., 2018).
How Does Nostalgia Foster Meaning?
Nostalgia fosters meaning in life through various mechanisms. One such mechanism is ritual engagement. Rituals, like decorating a Christmas tree or exchanging wedding rings, are symbolic, non-instrumental activities aimed at achieving meaningful outcomes. In a longitudinal study, Yin et al. (2024, Study 4) assessed nostalgia using the Southampton Nostalgia Scale (Sedikides et al., 2015), intentions to engage in or actual engagement in ritualistic behaviors (e.g., pasting couplets) during a traditional Chinese festival, and meaning in life using the Nostalgia Functions Scale (Hepper et al., 2012). They found that nostalgia predicted both ritualistic intentions and behaviors, which in turn enhanced meaning in life. Engaging in rituals fosters coherence, purpose, and significance in life.
In Study 1 of Sedikides et al., (2018), participants were randomly assigned to nostalgic reflection or a control task, then they indicated felt nostalgia (1-6), meaning in life (1-6), and motivation to pursue an important goal (1-8). Nostalgic reflection increased all three, and the effect on meaning mediated the effect on motivation.
Social connectedness, defined as a sense of acceptance and belonging (Sedikides & Wildschut, 2019), is another pathway through which nostalgia imparts meaning. Nostalgia often involves recalling social interactions and relationships, as “the mind is ‘peopled’” during nostalgic reflection (Hertz, 1990, p. 195). This process rekindles symbolic bonds with close others, bringing them into the present moment (Davis, 1979). Indeed, nostalgic recollections are rich in social themes, such as interactions with loved ones (Abeyta et al., 2015; Wildschut et al., 2006, 2010), which are key sources of meaning (Lambert et al., 2010; Stillman et al., 2009). For example, nostalgia induced through music (Routledge et al., 2011, Study 1) strengthened social connectedness (e.g., “feeling loved”), which in turn enhanced meaning in life (e.g., “life is worth living”). Another experiment (Routledge et al., 2011, Study 2), in which nostalgia was induced using the ERT, social connectedness was assessed with the Social Provisions Scale (Cutrona & Russell, 1987), and meaning was assessed using the Presence of Meaning in Life subscale of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (Steger et al., 2006), also showed that nostalgia increased meaning by fostering social connectedness.
Self-continuity, the sense of connection between one’s past and present self, is an additional mechanism through which nostalgia conveys meaning (Sedikides et al., 2016). Self-continuity involves integrating personally significant experiences (e.g., family vacations, holiday traditions) across time (Sedikides et al., 2023). This process helps individuals construct narratives that link their evolving selves, cultivating coherence, cultural belonging (McLean et al., 2007), and meaning in life (Vignoles et al., 2006). Indeed, nostalgia, induced via the ERT, strengthens self-continuity (Sedikides et al., 2016), which in turn promotes meaning in life (van Tilburg et al., 2019).
Finally, nostalgia transmits meaning through a sequential process involving social connectedness and self-continuity. Nostalgia-induced social connectedness strengthens self-continuity, as the significant events often brought to mind during nostalgic reflection create a narrative thread that connects relational bonds over time (Sedikides et al., 2016). For example, fond memories of a family holiday may trigger recollections of other family holidays, creating a mental narrative of one’s relationships with family members over the years, thereby fostering self-continuity. van Tilburg et al. (2019) demonstrated this serial mediation, whereby nostalgia increases meaning via social connectedness and ensuing self-continuity. In Experiment 1, participants listened to a nostalgic song and then a control (happy) song, reporting social connectedness, self-continuity, and meaning. Nostalgia-induced social connectedness predicted self-continuity, which in turn predicted meaning in life. This pattern was replicated in Experiment 2, which used a between-subjects design, where participants listened to either the nostalgia or control (happy) song.
How Does Nostalgia Counteract Existential Threat?
In Study 6 of Sedikides et al., (2016), participants were randomly assigned to nostalgic reflection or a control task, then they indicated social connectedness (1-6), self-continuity (1-6), and eudaimonic well-beging (1-6). Nostalgic reflection increased all three, and the effects on social connectedness and self-continuity mediated the effect on well-being.
Nostalgia has the capacity to counteract life meaninglessness. This principle is based on the regulatory model of nostalgia (Wildschut & Sedikides, 2023), which posits that adverse events (e.g., being confronted with the precariousness and ephemerality of daily life) have a negative impact on one’s current state (e.g., precipitate a loss of meaning). However, these adverse events also trigger nostalgia, which in turn positively influence one’s current state (e.g., raise meaning in life). In this instantiation of the regulatory model, nostalgia functions as a balancing feedback mechanism that sustains existential equanimity. As Wallace, a character in Saul Bellow’s Mr. Sammler’s Planet (1970, p. 190) declared, nostalgic memories “... keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.”
Empirical evidence supports this assertion. Threats to life’s meaningfulness elicit nostalgia. In an experiment by Routledge et al. (2011, Study 3), participants in the threat condition read an essay challenging the significance of life, whereas those in the control condition read an essay on the limitations of computers. Participants in the meaning-threat condition felt more nostalgic than those in the control condition. Further, nostalgia countervails threats to life’s meaningfulness. In Routledge et al. (2011, Study 4), participants who underwent a nostalgia induction via the ERT were less likely to derogate an essay challenging life’s meaningfulness, suggesting that nostalgia fortified them against the threat.
Boredom, a state of low arousal and dissatisfaction, also leads to drops in meaning (van Tilburg & Igou, 2011). However, nostalgia offsets this loss of meaning. van Tilburg et al. (2013) reported that boredom led to drops in meaning but gains in nostalgia, which in turn counteracted the loss of meaning. In Study 1, they examined whether engaging in a boring task prompts people to recall nostalgic memories when given the chance to reflect on a past event. Participants copied either 10 (high-boredom condition) or 2 (low-boredom condition) references about concrete mixtures. Next, they were instructed to reflect on a past event and describe it in writing, after which they rated their level of nostalgia (e.g., “Right now, I am feeling quite nostalgic”). Participants in the high-boredom condition felt more nostalgic than those in the low-boredom condition. Two subsequent studies conceptually replicated this effect of boredom on heightened nostalgia.
Crucially, a final study, van Tilburg et al. (2013, Study 6) demonstrated that nostalgia facilitated the process of meaning regulation in the face of boredom. Boredom was induced with the same reference-copying task as in Study 1. Next, participants completed an assessments of nostalgia (similar to Study 1) and the Presence subscale of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MILQ; Steger et al., 2006; e.g., “My life has a clear sense of purpose”). Boredom was associated with greater meaning in life through heightened nostalgia, reinforcing the idea that nostalgia helps people retrieve meaningful memories to counteract the lack of meaning caused by boredom.
Clockwise from top left: Saul Bellow; Mr. Sammler’s Planet (Bellow, 1970); Nostalgia: A Sanctuary of Meaning (Wilson, 2005); and Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia (Davis, 1979).
Disillusionment, a state of existential concern, is another context in which nostalgia restores meaning. Maher et al. (2021, Study 1) induced disillusionment and assessed its effect on meaning. Participants in the disillusionment condition were provided with a definition of disillusionment (“being dissatisfied or defeated in expectation or hope”) and asked to bring to mind a global issue that made them feel most disillusioned, then write about it. Those in the control condition were instructed to bring to mind and write about an ordinary experience. An assessment of meaning followed (e.g., “I feel a sense of meaningfulness”). As hypothesized, meaning was lower in the disillusionment condition than in the control condition. This finding set the stage for testing the regulatory role of nostalgia.
In a subsequent study (Maher et al., 2021, Study 2), the researchers induced disillusionment as before, such that participants brought to mind either a disillusioning issue or ordinary event. Next, they assessed nostalgia by instructing participants to recall a past event and rate how nostalgic they felt (e.g., “Right now, I am feeling quite nostalgic”; van Tilburg et al., 2013, Study 1). Finally, they assessed presence of meaning in life with Steger et al.’s (2006) MILQ. Disillusioned participants recalled memories that made them feel more nostalgic compared to controls. Importantly, mediational analysis showed that disillusionment increased meaning via heightened nostalgia.
Nostalgia, then, serves as a buffer against meaninglessness in life. It is particularly triggered by feelings of emptiness, reduces defensive reactions to existential threats, and helps restore purpose when faced with dullness and disillusionment that erode meaning.
Conclusion
Nostalgia was described as a brain disorder by Johannes Hofer’s (1688/1934) during his time as a medical student at the University of Basel (Sedikides et al., 2004). However, empirical findings over the past two decades have changed its reputation. Our research follows this tradition of rehabilitation. We focused on the existential significance of nostalgia. Using a converging operations approach (Campbell & Fiske, 1959), we assessed or manipulated nostalgia in various ways. We found that nostalgia plays a key role in supporting existential coping.
In conclusion, nostalgia is a powerful source of life’s meaning—a “sanctuary of meaning” (Wilson, 2004). It builds, enhances, and restores meaning, aiding those who encounter meaning threats. Nostalgia is an emotion deeply tied to humans’ existential experience.
Tim Wildschut is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Professor of Social and Personality Psychology. He received his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wildschut's research challenges the historical view of nostalgia as a negative emotion, presenting it instead as a complex, multi-faceted experience that can have positive psychological functions, such as enhancing social connectedness, fostering meaning, and strengthening self-continuity. His research also extends into intergroup relations, including the interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect, which explores why groups tend to be more competitive than individuals. His work on this problem was recognised with the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize.
Constantine Sedikides is Professor of Social and Personality Psychology, and Director of the Center for Research on Self and Identity, at University of Southampton, United Kingdom. A good deal of his research is on the search for meaning in life, nostalgia, and authenticity. His work has been supported by grants from many national and international funding agencies, culminating in over 400 publications and 15 edited volumes. Constantine has received several awards, including the Ambady Award for Mentoring Excellence (Society for Personality and Social Psychology), Daniel M. Wegner Theoretical Innovation Prize (Society for Personality and Social Psychology), Distinguished Lifetime Career Award (International Society for Self and Identity), Kurt Lewin Medal for Outstanding Scientific Contribution (European Association of Social Psychology), and The Presidents’ Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychological Knowledge (The British Psychological Society).