Effects Of Nostalgia With Different Emotional Valence On Future Self-Continuity

Nostalgia is one of the important factors affecting self-continuity.Individuals can associate the "past self" with the "present self" through nostalgia,thus the continuity of the past self was enhanced.At the same time,nostalgia with different emotional valence has different effects on the past self-continuity.However,at present,there is still a lack of understanding on whether nostalgia affects the future self-continuity.Research shows that nostalgia is "spatiotemporal" and "forward-looking",and the object of nostalgia is not limited to the past,but also points to the future.Therefore,whether nostalgia with different emotional valence has an effect on future self-continuity is a question to be discussed in this study.In addition,recent studies have found that social connectedness mediates nostalgia and past self-continuity.Nostalgia can enhance self-continuity by increasing social connectedness,making individuals more willing to face the future.This study further explores the role of social connectedness in the effect of nostalgia on future self-continuity.Experiment 1 was designed to compare the sensitivity of the two measures of future self-continuity and to explore whether nostalgia had an effect on future self-continuity.The experimental design adopted 3(grouping: nostalgia group,control group,blank group)×2(future self-continuity: pre-test,post-test)mixed experimental design,and recruited 83 subjects.The results showed that,when other factors were not considered,nostalgia did not show a significant effect on future self-continuity.The purpose of experiment 2 is to investigate the effect of nostalgia with different emotional valence on future self-continuity and to explore the role of social connectedness in it.The experimental design adopted 5(grouping: positive nostalgia group,negative nostalgia group,bittersweet group,control group and blank group)x 2(future self-continuity : pre-test,post-test)to further explore the effects of different nostalgia emotional valence on future self-continuity,138 college students were randomly selected nostalgic(positive nostalgia,negative nostalgia,bittersweet nostalgia)and no nostalgic(daily memories,no manipulation),measure future self-continuity and social connectedness before and after the experiment manipulation at the same time.The results show that :(1)different emotional valence nostalgia has different effects on future self-continuity,positive nostalgia promotes future self-continuity,while negative nostalgia weakens future self-continuity.(2)nostalgia with different emotional valence not only has a significant direct prediction effect on future self-continuity,but also influences it through the partial mediating effect of social connectedness.