The Nostalgia Affect
Yes. It’s titled “AFFECT” on purpose.
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What is “the nostalgia effect”?
The nostalgia effect is when people recall the past more positively than it actually was. This effect can foster social connectedness, reduces loneliness, and increases prosocial behavior.
It may also reach and influence a deeper part of your psyche than you realize, influencing your purchasing decisions more than you may know and making you feel as though you are more strongly connected and part of a social network than you actually are. While it is great to feel more connected, this feeling is used to separate you from your hard-earned cash. When you feel connected, this lowers your attachment to and the importance you place on money. The feelings of safety associated with being connected and the feeling of safety you get from money are interchangeable resources for satisfying our basic needs. So, if you feel more socially connected and a part of a group, you won’t have as strong an attachment to money and vice-versa. This brain twist can cause people to spend more on items they would not otherwise and may view money as having less value for their basic day-to-day needs.
Taking it all too personal
In recent years, I have personally avoided falling for too many marketing maneuvers utilizing the nostalgia effect. Still, I have allowed the nostalgia effect to lower my value of money! My daughter Bailey will soon be going off to college, and with tuition, books, computers, travel expenses, and Lush Body Soaps being so expensive, there is little room in the family budget. But in just a couple of clicks in one particular instance, I ended up paying way too much for an item that I now have the regrettable privilege of owning.
Recently, when discussing my childhood with some acquaintances, I was reminded of one item that I considered to be the best (and sometimes only) friend I ever had. It was my K-mart AM clock radio. Before the rise of FM and during the peak of 8-track tapes, before cassette tapes and CDs, there was the AM mono-band beauty of all things ’70s.
I did not grow up in a well-to-do home, and this inexpensive AM radio was my one prized possession in those early years. I spent many hours listening to “The Mighty 690!” in Southern California as I would write and draw in my room constantly. The radio, pencil, and paper were all I needed in those years (and sometimes to this day), and I enjoyed all the escapism it afforded. Man! Just writing this brings me so many sighs of relief. So, you can imagine what happened when I sat down to reminisce and search for an image of that K-mart AM clock radio. You guessed it; I found it. On eBay. It could have cost $1000.00, and I would have bought it. Seeing the wood veneer, dials, and aluminum clock face brought such a visceral sensation to my entire being I felt compelled to purchase it.
Back to the future
Honestly, I would have been better off downloading a picture. And to be even more honest, even though I have many emotions attached to this piece of plastic, I have a life that needs to be lived today. I spent nearly $80.00 on an old, broken AM clock radio that only tells the correct time twice a day, and not only did it not turn on, but it did not turn back time or magically pick up “The Mighty 690” when I plugged it in.
