Regaining In-Group Continuity in Times of Anxiety About the Group’s Future

Anouk Smeekes (1) , Jolanda Jetten (2) , Maykel Verkuyten (1) , Michael J.A. Wohl (3) , Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti (4) , Amarina Ariyanto (5) , Frédérique Autin (6, 7) , Nadia Ayub (8) , Constantina Badea (9, 10) , Tomasz Besta (11) , Fabrizio Butera (12) , Rui Costa-Lopes (13) , Lijuan Cui (14) , Carole Fantini (15) , Gillian Finchilescu (16) , Lowell Gaertner (17) , Mario Gollwitzer (18) , Ángel Gómez (19) , Roberto Gonzalez (20) , Ying Yi Hong (21) , Dorthe Høj Jensen (22) , Minoru Karasawa (23) , Thomas Kessler (24) , Olivier Klein (15) , Marcus Lima (25) , Tuuli Renvik (4) , Laura Megevand (26) , Thomas Morton (27) , Paola Paladino (28) , Tibor Polya (29) , Aleksejs Ruza (30) , Wan Shahrazad (31) , Sushama Sharma (32) , Ali Teymoori (33) , Ana Torres (34) , Anne van Der Bles (35)

1 Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University [Utrecht]
2 UQ [All campuses : Brisbane, Dutton Park Gatton, Herston, St Lucia and other locations] - The University of Queensland
3 University of Ottawa [Ottawa]
4 Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki
5 University of Indonesia
6 UP - Université de Poitiers = University of Poitiers
7 CeRCA [Poitiers] - Centre de recherches sur la cognition et l'apprentissage [UMR 7295]
8 College of Computer Science & Information Systems, Institute of Business Management, Karachi
9 UPN - Université Paris Nanterre
10 LAPPS - Laboratoire Parisien de Psychologie Sociale
11 UG - University of Gdańsk
12 UNIL - Université de Lausanne = University of Lausanne
13 ULISBOA - Universidade de Lisboa = University of Lisbon
14 ECNU - East China Normal University [Shangaï]
15 ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles
16 WITS - University of the Witwatersrand [Johannesburg]
17 The University of Tennessee [Knoxville]
18 Ludwig-Maximillians University
19 UNED - Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
20 Departamento Ingeniería Telemática
21 CUHK - The Chinese University of Hong Kong [Hong Kong]
22 Aarhus University [Aarhus]
23 Nagoya University
24 Friedrich-Schiller-Universität = Friedrich Schiller University Jena [Jena, Germany]
25 Federal University of Sergipe
26 ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon
27 University of Exeter
28 UNITN - Università degli Studi di Trento = University of Trento
29 MTA - Hungarian Academy of Sciences
30 Daugavpils University
31 National Defence University of Malaysia [Kuala Lumpur]
32 Kurukshetra University
33 UB - Université de Bordeaux
34 UFPB - Universidade Federal da Paraiba / Federal University of Paraiba
35 CAM - University of Cambridge [UK]

Collective nostalgia for the good old days of the country thrives across the world. However, little is known about the social psychological dynamics of this collective emotion across cultures. We predicted that collective nostalgia is triggered by collective angst as it helps people to restore a sense of in-group continuity via stronger in-group belonging and out-group rejection (in the form of opposition to immigrants). Based on a sample (N = 5,956) of individuals across 27 countries, the general pattern of results revealed that collective angst predicts collective nostalgia, which subsequently relates to stronger feelings of in-group continuity via in-group belonging (but not via out-group rejection). Collective nostalgia generally predicted opposition to immigrants, but this was subsequently not related to in-group continuity.

Mots clés: collective angst; collective nostalgia; continuity; cross-cultural; belonging; immigrants

Domaines: Psychologie; Sciences cognitives

Anouk Smeekes, Jolanda Jetten, Maykel Verkuyten, Michael J.A. Wohl, Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti, et al.. Regaining In-Group Continuity in Times of Anxiety About the Group’s Future: A Study on the Role of Collective Nostalgia Across 27 Countries. Social psychology, 2018, pp.1 - 19. ⟨10.1027/1864-9335/a000350⟩. ⟨hal-01928213⟩