Unlocking the bitter potential of nostalgia: Covariation between and causal effects of nostalgia on envy.

Nostalgia is a sentimental longing for the past that is experienced across people from various cultures and across the lifespan. Though nostalgia has typically been conceptualized as a mixed emotion, prior research has primarily focused on positive effects. We hypothesized that nostalgia can additionally have certain negative effects. In particular, nostalgia shares certain features with envy, a negative emotion defined as a resentful longing for another person's fortune, luck, possessions, or attributes. We predicted that nostalgia would be positively related to envy and that nostalgia would increase feelings of envy. In two cross-sectional studies (Studies 1 and 2; = 2,588), nostalgia was positively related to envy between individuals and after controlling for demographics and relevant personality traits. In three daily diary studies (Studies 3-5; = 298; 3,454 daily reports), daily states of nostalgia were positively related to daily feelings of envy and after controlling for daily negative events. Lagged analyses indicated bidirectional effects, such that nostalgia predicted greater envy on the following day and vice versa. In two experiments (Studies 6 and 7; = 513), nostalgia increased feelings of envy. This effect was mediated by feelings of regret and envy for a past self, suggesting that nostalgia makes people feel envious of their past self which leads to general feelings of envy. These studies point to a novel bitter effect of nostalgia. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).