Scent-evoked nostalgia

Can scents evoke nostalgia; what might be the psychological implications of such an evocation? Participants sampled 12 scents and rated the extent to which each scent was familiar, arousing and autobiographically relevant, as well as the extent to which each scent elicited nostalgia. Participants wh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Memory (Hove) 2015-02, Vol.23 (2), p.157-166
Main Authors: Reid, Chelsea A., Green, Jeffrey D., Wildschut, Tim, Sedikides, Constantine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arousal
Autobiographical memory
Emotions
Female
Humans
Male
Memory, Episodic
Mental Recall
Nostalgia
Odorants
Olfaction
Olfactory Perception
Psychological functions
Recognition (Psychology)
Scent-evoked nostalgia
Young Adult
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Summary:Can scents evoke nostalgia; what might be the psychological implications of such an evocation? Participants sampled 12 scents and rated the extent to which each scent was familiar, arousing and autobiographically relevant, as well as the extent to which each scent elicited nostalgia. Participants who were high (compared to low) in nostalgia proneness reported more scent-evoked nostalgia, and scents elicited greater nostalgia to the extent that they were arousing, familiar and autobiographically relevant. Scent-evoked nostalgia predicted higher levels of positive affect, self-esteem, self-continuity, optimism, social connectedness and meaning in life. In addition, scent-evoked nostalgia was characterised by more positive emotions than either non-nostalgic autobiographical memories or non-nostalgic non-autobiographical memories. Finally, scent-evoked nostalgia predicted in-the-moment feelings of personal (general or object-specific) nostalgia. The findings represent a foray into understanding the triggers and affective signature of scent-evoked nostalgia.
ISSN:0965-8211
1464-0686
DOI:10.1080/09658211.2013.876048