Music-Evoked Nostalgia: Affect, Memory, and Personality Frederick S. Barrett, Kevin J. Grimm, and Richard W. Robins University of California, Davis Tim Wildschut and Constantine Sedikides University of Southampton Petr Janata University of California, Davis Participants listened to randomly selected excerpts of popular music and rated how nostalgic each song made them feel. Nostalgia was stronger to the extent that a song was autobiographically salient, arousing, familiar, and elicited a greater number of positive, negative, and mixed emotions. These effects were moderated by individual differences (nostalgia proneness, mood state, dimensions of the Affective Neurosciences Personality Scale, and factors of the Big Five Inventory). Nostalgia proneness predicted stronger nostalgic experiences, even after controlling for other individual difference measures. Nostalgia proneness was predicted by the Sadness dimension of the Affective Neurosciences Personality Scale and Neuroticism of the Big Five Inventory. Nostalgia was associated with both joy and sadness, whereas nonnostalgic and nonautobiographical experiences were associated with irritation. Keywords: popular music; Big Five Inventory; Affective Neurosciences Personality Scale; autobiograph- ical memory; mixed emotions Nostalgia is an affective process that can accompany autobio- graphical memories (Batcho, 2007; Leboe & Ansons, 2006; Sedikides, Wildschut, Arndt, & Routledge, 2008; Wildschut, Sedikides, Arndt, & Routledge, 2006). It has been described as a complex emotion that gives rise primarily (albeit not exclusively) to positive affect, and serves to counteract sadness and loneliness (Wildschut et al., 2006; Zhou, Sedikides, Wildschut, & Gao, 2008). Recent investigations have implicated nostalgia as an emo- tion often triggered by music (Janata, Tomic, & Rakowski, 2007; Juslin, Liljestrom, Vastfjall, Barradas, & Silva, 2008; Zentner, Grandjean, & Scherer, 2008). Although the few descriptions of nostalgia within the current psychological literature have been useful in exploring the history, content, and functions of nostalgia, they have addressed neither the specific structure of music-evoked nostalgia nor individual differences in the affective and mnemonic structure of music-evoked nostalgia. The objective of our research was to address these issues. In Figure 1, we present a heuristic model outlining both context- level and person-level constructs that may contribute to nostalgic experience, as well as the links through which these constructs may relate to nostalgia (L1–L8). By context-level constructs, we are referring to aspects of a person’s relationship to a given song, as well as attributes of a person’s experience while listening to a given song. A person’s relationship to a given song may be expressed as how familiar they are with it, as well as the degree to which the song is associated with a personal memory. An attribute of a person’s experience while listening to a song may include how aroused a person feels during listening, as well as the particular emotions that a person experiences during listening. Context-level constructs may help explain why the same person experiences varying levels of nostalgia when listening to different songs. By person-level constructs, we are referring to individual dif- ferences between listeners, such as the degree to which a person is generally prone to experience nostalgia and the degree to which individuals differ on personality traits (such as extraversion or neuroticism). Person-level variables may help explain why some persons feel more nostalgic than others when listening to music. Our underlying premise is the basic idea that the extent to which a particular piece of music will evoke nostalgia is a function of context-level variables (e.g., autobiographical salience of a partic- ular song for a given person), person-level variables (e.g., how prone to nostalgia the listener is), and the interaction between context-level and person-level variables. We triggered nostalgia using a method previously applied to explore music-evoked auto- biographical memories (Janata et al., 2007). First, however, we briefly review literature on the constructs in Figure 1 and their possible relationships to nostalgic experience. Context-Level Constructs and Music-Evoked Nostalgia We begin with the dependent variable of interest: nostalgia. Wildschut et al. (2006) enumerated several triggers of nostalgia based on participants’ descriptions of circumstances under which they experience nostalgia. Three prominent categories of nostalgia triggers emerged: negative affect, social interactions, and sensory inputs (e.g., music, smell). We focus on one of these reported Frederick S. Barrett and Petr Janata, Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis; Kevin J. Grimm and Richard W. Robins, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis; Tim Wildschut and Constantine Sedikides, School of Psychology, University of Southampton. This work was supported by a Templeton Advanced Research Program grant from the Metanexus Institute to Petr Janata. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Petr Janata, Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, 267 Cousteau Place, Davis, CA 95618. E-mail: pjanata@ucdavis.edu Emotion © 2010 American Psychological Association 2010, Vol. 10, No. 3, 390 – 403 1528-3542/10/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0019006 390