Nostalgia and Satisfaction with Life: A Behavioral Genetic Analysis

Yu L. L. Luo, Tim Wildschut, Constantine Sedikides and Huajian Cai ()
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Yu L. L. Luo: Institute of Psychology
Tim Wildschut: University of Southampton
Constantine Sedikides: University of Southampton
Huajian Cai: Institute of Psychology

Journal of Happiness Studies, 2022, vol. 23, issue 7, No 10, 3347-3361

Abstract: Abstract Nostalgia, a bittersweet but predominantly positive emotion, arises from self-relevant and social memories. Evidence suggests that nostalgia is a potential source of happiness. Indeed, at the phenotypic level, this relation appears to be positive albeit tenuous. At the etiologic level, the relation is unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, we investigated the phenotypic and genetic association between nostalgia and satisfaction with life (SWL). We assessed nostalgia and SWL in 464 twin siblings, including 117 monozygotic twin pairs and 115 dizygotic twin pairs. By comparing monozygotic twins to dizygotic twins, we analyzed the genetic and environmental effects on nostalgia and SWL simultaneously. We observed a small positive association between nostalgia and SWL (rphenotypic = 0.12), with this association being strengthened after neuroticism was partialled out (rphenotypic = 0.17). More importantly, nostalgia and SWL shared some environmental (but not genetic) sources (rnon-shared environment = 0.21), which accounted for the majority (88%) of their phenotypic association. Taken together, the findings support a positive relation between nostalgia and SWL, and further uncover the bases underlying this relation. The study adds to the burgeoning literature on nostalgia and well-being.

Keywords: Nostalgia; Satisfaction with life; Well-being; Neuroticism; Behavioral genetics; Twin study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/s10902-022-00548-9

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