The I in Us: Personality influences the expression of collective nostalgia

Inspired by calls for a greater integration of personality and social psychology, we tested whether personality traits (measured using the HEXACO model) predicted the expression of collective nostalgia-a group-based emotion that reflects sentimental longing for the past of one's social group. Results of a representative sample study conducted among Canadians showed that personality traits predicted the content of the collective nostalgia group members felt, above and beyond individual level socio-demographic characteristics and political orientation. Openness-focused nostalgia was predicted by greater openness to experience, agreeableness, and emotionality, whereas nostalgia for a homogenous society of the past was predicted by lower scores on honestyhumility and openness to experiences as well as greater emotionality and agreeableness. These findings show that individual and group-level phenomena are intertwined, which may help explain intra-group variation in beliefs and behaviors.