The Good Old Days and the Scary Future Ones

Abstract: Building on the social psychology literature on collective memory, we tested if national nostalgia fosters collective angst through greater perceived societal anomie among French participants. Consistent with our predictions, a correlational study ( N = 535) and an experimental study ( N = 370) showed that nostalgia for France’s past predicted greater angst regarding its future through increased perceptions that present French society is more anomic than before. These findings suggest that (1) our representations of the national past shapes how we perceive present and future society and (2) national nostalgia, besides acting as a coping mechanism against existential threats as suggested in previous work, might also feed these threats by fostering perceptions of an anomic present and a frightening future.