Collective nostalgia is associated with stronger outgroup-directed anger and participation in ingroup-favoring collective action

Abstract

Collective nostalgia refers to longing for the way society used to be. We tested whether collective nostalgia is associated with ingroup-favoring collective action and whether this association is mediated by outgroup-directed anger and outgroup-directed contempt. We conducted an online study of Hong Kong residents (N = 111) during a large-scale democratic social movement, the Umbrella Movement, that took place in Hong Kong in 2014 in response to proposed electoral reforms by the Chinese government in Mainland China. Reported collective nostalgia for Hong Kong’s past was high in our sample and collective nostalgia predicted stronger involvement in ingroup-favoring collective action, and it did so indirectly via higher intensity of outgroup-directed anger (but not through outgroup-directed contempt). We argue that collective nostalgia has implications for strengthening ingroup-serving collective action, and we highlight the importance of arousal of group-based emotions in this process.