Nostalgia seems to have consumed conservative politics in recent years, with politicians repeatedly harking back to a bygone era when presumably things were much better than they are today. Research from the University of Houston suggests that political nostalgia can be highly effective at predicting electoral outcomes.
Nostalgia, which is commonly defined as a longing for the past, has become an increasingly important focus of research in areas such as social psychology. The researchers believe that nostalgia has been hugely influential in driving future behaviors. They cite the example of fans of Obama pining for his presidency during the Trump years.
“Obama nostalgia emerged as an independent predictor of political attitudes, political engagement intentions, voting intentions, and political engagement,” they say. “Our findings extend the literature on individual differences in nostalgia proneness and reinforce the motivational potency of nostalgia in the political domain.”
The role of nostalgia
The researchers analyzed the nostalgia felt towards Barack Obama among nearly 1,000 undergrad students, as well as their attitude towards the Trump administration, their level of political engagement, their political ideology and party identification.
“Obama nostalgia predicted negative attitudes toward the Trump presidency, stronger political engagement intentions and voting intentions, and actual political engagement, above and beyond competing predictors including political ideology, prior support for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and voting behavior in 2016,” the researchers explain.
They also suggest that nostalgia, whether for a particular administration or for individual politicians, can also play a crucial role in campaigns themselves. For instance, political ads that invoked Obama in a nostalgic way could have been invaluable during the 2020 election to help swing voters towards voting Democrat.
“Undoubtedly, there are other predictors of political engagement but as hypothesized, Obama nostalgia predicted negative attitudes toward the Trump presidency, stronger political engagement intentions, and stronger voting intentions,” the authors conclude.
