{"id":33830,"date":"2023-09-21T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/6073a2f2-242a-457b-bfc3-5bd73d412ab8"},"modified":"2023-09-21T21:46:12","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T19:46:12","slug":"anemoia-the-psychology-behind-feeling-nostalgic-for-a-time-youve-never-known","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/anemoia-the-psychology-behind-feeling-nostalgic-for-a-time-youve-never-known\/","title":{"rendered":"Anemoia: the psychology behind feeling nostalgic for a time you\u2019ve never known"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thinking fondly about a time you have not experienced by using imagined positive past experiences. <\/p>

By Christian Jarrett\n <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 21 September 2023 at 19:00 PM<\/p>

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The term \u2018nostalgia\u2019 was coined by a Swiss doctor in the 17th\u00a0century to describe the homesickness experienced by mercenaries fighting far from home (from the Greek\u00a0\u2018nostos\u2019\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the desire to return home \u2013and\u00a0\u2018algos\u2019, meaning pain).<\/p>

That\u2019s not so different from how we use the term to refer to thinking fondly or wistfully of the past, such as places you\u2019ve been or people you\u2019ve known. In fact, psychologists have shown that nostalgia of this kind has various psychological benefits, such as countering feelings of loneliness or existential anxiety. But a yearning for a past that you never actually experienced is different (and\u00a0has\u00a0its own name, \u2018anemoia\u2019, according to the\u00a0Dictionary\u00a0of Obscure Sorrows).<\/p>

Traditionally, psychologists thought of nostalgia as being based on a person\u2019s recollections of their own experiences,\u00a0which makes it difficult to fit what you\u2019ve described into their account. More recently, however, the philosopher\u00a0Prof\u00a0Felipe De Brigard at Duke University has\u00a0proposed<\/a>\u00a0that nostalgia is broader, and includes your yearnings.<\/p>

De Brigard was inspired by research on memory that\u2019s shown it\u2019s a creative process. When you recollect memories, it\u2019s not like you\u2019re looking up a recording of what happened, it\u2019s more like your brain creates a simulation of those past events.<\/p>

In this way, De Brigard argues that nostalgia can be based on memories \u2013\u00a0simulations of pleasant past experiences \u2013\u00a0but doesn\u2019t have to be. Given the role of imagination in memory, he says it\u2019s not a huge leap to propose that nostalgia can also be based on imagined positive past experiences.<\/p>

This kind of imagination-based nostalgia is likely to be influenced by stories and propaganda about the past. So it\u2019s quite likely\u00a0that\u00a0you\u2019ve read or heard rose-tinted accounts of historical periods or places. Based on those accounts, your mind creates a simulation of what those places or times would have been like and you then feel a yearning to experience them for yourself. De Brigard says this is more likely if you\u2019re feeling dissatisfied with your current situation.<\/p>

You\u2019re far from the only one experiencing this kind of nostalgia and recently social psychologists and political scientists have started to wonder whether anemoia could be playing a part in the rise of populist movements, such as the \u2018Make America Great Again\u2019 movement in the US, or the Brexit campaigns in the UK.<\/p>

Older populist voters might be inspired by conventional nostalgia, for times they really did experience (that\u2019s not to say their memories are necessarily accurate).\u00a0But\u00a0many young voters also seem to be susceptible to nostalgia-based propaganda and anemoia helps to make sense of this.<\/p>

Like you, they could be experiencing rose-tinted nostalgia for past places and times, especially if they\u2019re struggling in present circumstances. In turn, perhaps this attracts them to politicians who promise a return to the \u2018good old days\u2019 \u2013\u00a0even if those days are little more than a figment of the imagination.\u00a0<\/p>

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