The Research Problem and Objectives

Nostalgia is an important factor that plays role in marketing of any good or service. The research article aimed at identifying the impact of nostalgia and if it has an impact on decreasing the desire for money. The objective was to understand if nostalgic feeling decreases the desire for money of people. Nostalgia is considered important in marketing (Holak and Havlena 1992). It is an important feeling that creates an impression for example in 2012 nostalgia was quoted as most important trend in toys category. Even in extreme economic recession nostalgic themes are persuasive in nature and are effective. For example PepsiCo used nostalgic versions of their sodas based on original formulas. The objective was to evoke sentimental feelings of the brand. Similarly General Mills also used packaging to attain the nostalgic benefits for Big 5 cereals. The article proposes that the increase in use of nostalgia is majorly because it has the ability to weaken consumer grasp on money.

Overview of Theories and Hypotheses

The article focused on the personal experiences and outcomes of nostalgia, which is defined as a preference for things from the past. It is explained as “a preference (general liking, positive attitude, or favorable affect) toward objects (people, places, or things) that were more common (popular, fashionable, or widely circulated) when one was younger (in early adulthood, in adolescence, in childhood, or even before birth).”  It is also described as “emotion that arises from reflection on one’s past”. Nostalgia hence is majorly about the recollection of a fond, meaningful memory. Individuals often reflect on the memory through rose-colored glasses and may miss that time or person. In the same way individuals are likely to feel sentimental, tender, or happy, and often with a tinge of longing.

Nostalgia is unique and different from positive memories. Nostalgic recollections comprise two themes: a past event (which is usually defied in abstract terms) and the event’s relevance to the present experience (construed in concrete terms). It is also important to notice that nostalgia is distinct from positive affect. The content of nostalgic narratives is more positive than negative (Wildschut et al. 2006), and nostalgia typically but not always increases positive affect hence nostalgia is mostly a positive feeling associated with past events. While nostalgia most often evokes positive feelings, there are empirical demonstrations of the independent effects of nostalgia beyond those of positive affect (Cheung et al. 2013; Routledge et al. 2012; Stephan et al. 2012; Turner, Wildschut, and Sedikides 2012; Turner et al. 2013; Zhou et al. 2012).  In the same way nostalgia fosters social connectedness because it is about feeling loved and protected compared to those who write about other autobiographical events. It further reduces the loneliness of people and creates a positive image. It also fosters positive self-image in the mind of consumers. There is a need of belongingness that is fostered by nostalgia.

Six experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that nostalgic participants will desire money less than their neutral counterparts. It was predicted that nostalgic, relative to neutral, participants would be willing to spend more money on products, give away more money but not more time, report that money is relatively unimportant and less desirable, be less willing to exert effort to obtain money, and draw smaller coins. In addition, we predicted that the relation between nostalgia and money would be mediated by increased social connectedness.

 

Overview of Studies and Findings

The experiment 1 was an initial test of the hypothesis that individuals who feel nostalgic would desire money less than those who do not. The article used nostalgia using copy on print advertisements. In the nostalgia condition, participants viewed advertisements that focused on nostalgic memories from their past, whereas in the neutral condition participants viewed advertisements that focused on making new memories. Hence, both conditions reminded participants of their own memories, with the focus on memories from a personally experienced past in the nostalgia condition versus laying down new memories in the neutral condition. This experiment showed that participants who viewed an advertisement that prompted them to think about nostalgic memories, compared to those who viewed an advertisement that prompted them to think about making new memories, were willing to pay more for products. Although consistent with our hypothesis, this effect invites two alternative explanations. First, it is possible that nostalgia decreased the valuation of a variety of resources, not just money. In addition, it is plausible that nostalgia increased valuation of products, which was reflected in higher willingness- to-pay scores.

 

The objective of second experiment was to test whether nostalgia influences desire for money by gaining converging evidence from methods and measures different than those used in experiment 1. Experiment 2 used the dictator game which involves a one-shot exchange in which a participant decides unilaterally how much money (if any) to give to another player with the rest of the money remaining with the participant. This exchange takes place outside of the product realm, which permitted us to address the alternative explanation from experiment 1 that nostalgia increased valuation of products thereby increasing willingness-to-pay scores. We reasoned that, as desire for money decreases, amount of money given away would increase. The result showed that participants who wrote about a nostalgic event, compared to an ordinary event, would give more money to the receiver in the money condition, but not more time in the time condition.

The purpose of experiment 3 was twofold. First, this experiment aimed to rule out alternative explanations for a weakened desire for money. Second, the experiment aspired to contribute a new desire for money measure, namely, perceived money importance. We reasoned that participants who desired money more would elevate its importance compared to those who desired money less.

Experiment 3 established that participants who wrote about a nostalgic event lowered their perceived money importance compared to those who wrote about an ordinary autobiographical event. Also, this experiment ruled out several alternative explanations. Specifically, participants in the nostalgic versus neutral condition did not differ in the extent to which they felt relaxed, pleasant, soft, confrontational, distracted, and cooperative, and they did not differ in the extent to which they regarded the economic value of money as lower now than in the past.

The experiment 4 inquired about the consumer’s desire for money in order to determine face value assessment of money’s attractiveness. It was predicted that, after writing about a nostalgic versus an ordinary autobiographical event, participants would report lower scores on a money value scale. Further it was tested whether positive and negative affect were viable alternative explanations for the effect. Experiment 4 tested the relation between nostalgia and desire for money using a face-valid assessment of the latter construct: simply asking how much participants valued or desired money. In addition, experiment 4 provided evidence that nostalgia’s influence on the desire for money was not mediated by positive or negative affect. This finding is consistent with evidence that the influence of nostalgia on a variety of outcomes is independent of concomitant positive or negative affect.

 

The fifth experiment aimed at measuring the desire for money. Instead of asking participants how much they wanted products or money, it was asked what costs they would be willing to incur in order to gain money. The participants were shown a sample of aversive sounds and asked them to tell us how long they would be willing to re listen to them in order to earn $5. As with fervent music fans, early adopters, and bargain seekers who suffer outdoors for days in order to be the first in line for a valued experience, we reasoned that wanting something more translates into willingness to suffer for it. The results revealed that nostalgia participants indicated that they would endure aversive sounds for shorter durations in exchange for a monetary reward compared to neutral participants.

Theoretical Contribution

The research article focused on how nostalgia reduces the desire for money, a hypothesis based on research regarding nostalgia and the psychology of money. The literature strongly supports the notion that nostalgia fulfills the need to belong and heightens feelings of social connectedness. The psychology of money literature has shown that the mere presence of money can reduce the desire for social bonds and produce a preference for isolation (Vohs et al. 2006, 2008). Our research brought together these findings to test whether nostalgia, through its capacity to foster social connectedness, would lead individuals to behave as if they had weak motivation toward money.

The results of six experiments were consistent with this hypothesis. We manipulated nostalgia through an advertisement perusal task or instructions to recall an autobiographical event (experiments 2–6). Measures of desire for money ranged from cognitive (willingness to pay for desired products, experiment 1; willingness to expend effort, experiment 5), to behavioral (dictator game, experiment 2), perceptual (coin size, experiment 6), and valuation (experiments 3 and 4). We collected process evidence using validated self-report scales (experiment 5) and content analysis of autobiographical narratives (experiments 5 and 6).

Finally, it was tested the hypotheses across interpersonal (experiment 2) and intrapersonal (experiments 1, 3–6) domains. Several procedural changes were implemented in order to gather evidence of robustness. Operationalizations of desire for money included decisions that were hypothetical (as in willingness to pay) or real and binding (as in the dictator game). One experiment assessed the desire for money in an interpersonal context, whereas others did so with intrapersonal tasks. Also, we measured desire for money explicitly (dictator game, valuation, effort) and implicitly (estimates of coin sizes). We showed that the experience of nostalgia decreases the desire for money through augmented social connectedness both by locating this mechanism through narrative coding and by assessing it in the moment. Finally, we were able to elicit a nostalgic state by having participants view an advertisement that featured childhood memories versus directing them to conjure up new memories of their future or having them recollect nostalgic versus ordinary memories. Throughout these variations in procedure, the pattern of results remained similar suggesting that the effect is reliable and robust.

The findings also addressed alternative predictions centered on nostalgia-elicited loss. Given that social exclusion stimulates the desire for money (Zhou et al. 2009), it was possible that nostalgia, in evoking a sense of lost social bonds, would have heightened money’s attractiveness. It was also possible that nostalgia-evoked loss of social bonds would have motivated people to focus more on building social connections and less on having money, thus decreasing desire for money. Nostalgia-evoked loss of social relationships could also increase acceptance of other types of losses, including loss of money. Yet across our studies not only did we find that our nostalgia manipulations created a surge in social connectedness—a finding consistent with past research (e.g., Wildschut et al. 2006, 2010)—but that surge in social connectedness mediated the effect of nostalgia on money.