ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a growing body of research indicating that nostalgia plays an important role in people's efforts to find and maintain perceptions of meaning in life and it also discusses research demonstrating that nostalgia is associated with and increases perceptions of meaning, mitigates the effects of existential threat, and helps those who have meaning deficits cope with stressful experiences. The chapter proposes that nostalgia is a meaning-making resource. Content analyses of nostalgia narratives provided early empirical evidence that nostalgia promotes meaning. Specifically, nostalgic memories tend to be focused on personally cherished or consequential life events. The chapter focuses on the potential for nostalgia to reduce the accessibility of death thoughts following mortality salience. Nostalgia restores meaning following experiences or states that undermine meaning. Considering that some forms of meaning defense involve ingroup bias, prejudice, and even potentially self-harming behaviors, nostalgia may offer a more pro-social means of maintaining existential security.
