Nostalgia, a mostly positive emotional experience that involves revisiting cherished memories/experiences, instigates the pursuit of approach-oriented social goals of affiliation and growth. Attachment-related avoidance describes the extent to which people do not rely on relationships for psychological comfort and avoid interpersonal closeness. The purpose of the present research was to determine if individual differences in attachmentrelated avoidance moderate nostalgia’s capacity to energize social pursuits. Across 2 studies nostalgia increased approach-oriented social intentions/goals at lower levels of attachment-related avoidance, but not at higher levels. Among those higher in attachment-related avoidance, nostalgia was found to decrease intentions to connect with others. These studies suggest that while nostalgia typically energizes adaptive interpersonal pursuits, it can drive people with a history of interpersonal avoidance further from interpersonal relationships.

Introduction

Nostalgia is an emotional experience that is typically ingrained with sociality and has a number of social-related benefits (e.g., Abeyta, Routledge, & Juhl, 2015; Abeyta, Routledge, & Kaslon, 2018; Wildschut, Sedikides, Arndt, & Routledge, 2006; Wildschut, Sedikides, Routledge, Arndt, & Cordado, 2010; Zhou, Sedikides, Wildschut, & Gao, 2008). Nostalgia typically involves reflecting on special memories, and although individuals are the protagonists of their nostalgic reminiscences, it is quite common for nostalgic memories to focus on meaningful relationships and feature themes of belonging (Abeyta, Routledge, & Juhl, 2015; Abeyta, Routledge, Roylance, Wildschut, & Sedikides, 2015; Wildschut et al., 2006). Moreover, lay people around the world identify social relationships as a central focus of nostalgia (Hepper et al., 2014; Hepper, Ritchie, Sedikides, & Wildschut, 2012). A growing body of research indicates that nostalgia’s prototypical focus on social relationships is functional. Of course, maintaining a sense of social belonging is an important component of psychological health (e.g., Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Cacioppo & Cacioppo, 2014). The need for social belonging can be maintained via a direct route that involves motivation and behavior directed at connecting with other people, and via an indirect route that involves exposure to things (e.g., memories or artifacts) that make salient meaningful social bonds and in turn bolsters feelings of social belonging (Gardner, Pickett, & Knowles, 2005). As an experience that typically involves reflecting on memories of meaningful social roles and relationships, nostalgia has been found to satisfy the need for social belonging passively by bolstering feelings of social connectedness (e.g., Wildschut et al., 2006; Wildschut et al., 2010), and more actively by energizing approach-oriented goals of connecting with others (Abeyta et al., 2018; Abeyta, Routledge, & Juhl, 2015).