The people who let themselves go more easily to nostalgia are also those who commit more to maintain close relationships with their friends: this is what emerges from a study published on Cognition and emotion which involved almost 1,500 participants European and US. “Those who feel more often nostalgic and give value to the memories of the moments spent with others are more aware of the importance of relationships and the need to cultivate them,” explains Kuan-Ju Huang, one of the authors.
Canaglia nostalgia. To suffer more of nostalgia would be young people and the elderly – Obviously for different reasons: the former would remember the past moments when it is time to leave the family, go to university or start working; The latter would look at the happy memories of the past thinking of those who are gone and the uncertain future.
Three experiments. To investigate the relationship between nostalgia and relations, researchers have conducted Three different experiments. In the former they involved a group of students with an average age of 19, to whom they asked questions like “how much do you often feel nostalgic?” And “how motivated to weave new friendship relationships and maintain current ones?”; The young people reported they feel very close to seven people (not only friends, but also family and partners) and to consider important more 21 people in their social circle.
The second experiment was similar to the first, but involved people from an average age of 40 years, who reported to consider five people essential in their lives, and to feel close to other fourteen.
Less friends for those who do not let themselves go to memories. Finally, in the third experiment the authors analyzed the data collected along a period of seven years from the longitudinal Internet Studies for Social Sciences, a Dutch longitudinal study: it emerged (as it was foreseeable) that aging we become more nostalgic and that the least sentimental lose over the years almost a fifth of their closer relationships.
All three analyzes therefore highlighted that Those who tend to remember with nostalgia the happy moments lived in the past are more motivated to treat their relationships and keep them alive over time compared to those who are less sentimental.
