Scent-evoked nostalgia
Abstract
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.
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Reminders of the past, including music or songs, tastes, and scents, commonly trigger nostalgia.
“Reminders of the past, including music or songs [6,7,8], tastes [9], and scents [10] commonly trigger nostalgia.”
From Nostalgia: An impactful social emotion (2023) · cites this paper as [10]
Experimentally induced nostalgia increases self-continuity.
“scent-evoked nostalgia predicted greater self-continuity, assessed with two items from the Self-Continuity Index.”
From Nostalgia across cultures (2022) · cites this paper as Reid et al., 2015
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- Authors
- Reid, C. A., Green, J. D., Wildschut, T., & Sedikides, C.
- Affiliations
- Virginia Commonwealth University (US)
- University of Southampton (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Reid, Chelsea A.
- Venue
- Memory
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2014-01-23
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 157-166
- ISSN
- 0965-8211 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-0686
- OpenAlex
- W1964680944
- Cited by
- 193
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 15.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Memory (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Keywords
- olfaction, nostalgia proneness, autobiographical memory, positive affect, self-esteem, self-continuity, optimism, social connectedness, meaning in life
- MeSH terms
- Arousal, Emotions, Female, Humans, Male, Odorants, Mental Recall, Recognition, Psychology, Olfactory Perception, Young Adult, Memory, Episodic
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