Scent-evoked nostalgia

This art icle was downloaded by: [ 92.18.8.45] On: 27 January 2014, At : 06: 36 Publisher: Rout ledge I nform a Lt d Regist ered in England and Wales Regist ered Num ber: 1072954 Regist ered office: Mort im er House, 37- 41 Mort im er St reet , London W1T 3JH, UK Memory Publicat ion det ails, including inst ruct ions f or aut hors and subscript ion inf ormat ion: ht t p: / / www. t andf online. com/ loi/ pmem20 Scent-evoked nostalgia a a b b Chelsea A. Reid , Jef f rey D. Green , Tim Wildschut & Const ant ine Sedikides a Depart ment of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealt h Universit y, Richmond, VA, USA b Depart ment of Psychology, Universit y of Sout hampt on, Sout hampt on, UK Published online: 23 Jan 2014. To cite this article: Chelsea A. Reid, Jef f rey D. Green, Tim Wildschut & Const ant ine Sedikides , Memory (2014): Scent -evoked nost algia, Memory, DOI: 10. 1080/ 09658211. 2013. 876048 To link to this article: ht t p: / / dx. doi. org/ 10. 1080/ 09658211. 2013. 876048 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTI CLE Taylor & Francis m akes every effort t o ensure t he accuracy of all t he inform at ion ( t he “ Cont ent ” ) cont ained in t he publicat ions on our plat form . However, Taylor & Francis, our agent s, and our licensors m ake no represent at ions or warrant ies what soever as t o t he accuracy, com plet eness, or suit abilit y for any purpose of t he Cont ent . Any opinions and views expressed in t his publicat ion are t he opinions and views of t he aut hors, and are not t he views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of t he Cont ent should not be relied upon and should be independent ly verified wit h prim ary sources of inform at ion. 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Green1, Tim Wildschut2, and Constantine Sedikides2 1 Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK 2 Downloaded by [92.18.8.45] at 06:36 27 January 2014 (Received 1 July 2013; accepted 11 December 2013) Can scents evoke nostalgia; what might be the psychological implications of such an evocation? Participants sampled 12 scents and rated the extent to which each scent was familiar, arousing and autobiographically relevant, as well as the extent to which each scent elicited nostalgia. Participants who were high (compared to low) in nostalgia proneness reported more scent-evoked nostalgia, and scents elicited greater nostalgia to the extent that they were arousing, familiar and autobiographically relevant. Scent-evoked nostalgia predicted higher levels of positive affect, self-esteem, self-continuity, optimism, social connectedness and meaning in life. In addition, scent-evoked nostalgia was characterised by more positive emotions than either non-nostalgic autobiographical memories or non-nostalgic nonautobiographical memories. Finally, scent-evoked nostalgia predicted in-the-moment feelings of personal (general or object-specific) nostalgia. The findings represent a foray into understanding the triggers and affective signature of scent-evoked nostalgia. Keywords: Nostalgia; Olfaction; Scent-evoked nostalgia; Psychological functions; Autobiographical memory. The kitchen smells of yeast, a nostalgic smell. It reminds me of other kitchens, kitchens that were mine. It smells of mothers; … It smells of me, in former times, when I was a mother. Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1998, p. 47) A wave of recent research has established nostalgia as a self-conscious emotion and has yielded insights into its subjective experience. Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one’s valued past, entails bitter–sweet affect, albeit considerably more positive than negative, and refers to momentous occasions where the self and close others come together (e.g., birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, reunions, cultural rituals such as Thanksgiving) (Sedikides, Wildschut, Arndt, & Routledge, 2006, 2008). Importantly, nostalgia serves central psychological functions. Nostalgic reverie increases positive affect (Stephan, Sedikides, & Wildschut, 2012; Wildschut, Sedikides, Arndt, & Routledge, 2006), enhances self-esteem (Hepper, Ritchie, Sedikides, & Wildschut, 2012; Wildschut et al., 2006), strengthens self-continuity (i.e., the connection between one’s past and one’s present; Sedikides, Wildschut, Gaertner, Routledge, & Arndt, 2008; Sedikides et al., 2013), raises optimism (Cheung et al., 2013), instils a sense of social connectedness (Hepper et al., 2012; Zhou, Sedikides, Wildschut, & Gao, 2008) and imbues life with meaning (Routledge et al., 2011; Routledge, Wildschut, Sedikides, Juhl, & Arndt, 2012). In all of past research, nostalgia has been induced through narrative tasks, song lyrics or music. In the case of narrative tasks, participants are typically asked to reflect on a nostalgic (vs. ordinary autobiographical) experience, summarise it with Address correspondence to: Chelsea A. Reid, Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, 806 West Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. E-mail: [email protected] We thank Charles Duda, Jackie Molyneaux, Jacob Stringer, and Jacob Waymire for their assistance. © 2014 Taylor & Francis Downloaded by [92.18.8.45] at 06:36 27 January 2014 2 REID ET AL. keywords and write a brief essay about it (Routledge, Arndt, Sedikides, & Wildschut, 2008; Wildschut et al., 2006). In the case of song lyrics, participants read lyrics of a song that they previously identified as personally nostalgic (vs. lyrics of a song that another participant identified as personally nostalgic; Cheung et al., 2013, Study 4; Routledge et al., 2011). In the case of music, participants listen to a variety of brief musical excerpts (Barrett et al., 2010) or to a particular song that is considered to be evocative of nostalgia, as determined by pre-testing (vs. a nonnostalgic song; Cheung et al., 2013, Study 3; Sedikides et al., 2013). In all cases, the ensuing experience of nostalgia is assessed via validated scales, such as a 3-item general nostalgia scale (Wildschut et al., 2006) or a 20-item object-specific nostalgia scale (Batcho, 1995). We would like to describe in more detail the research on music-evoked nostalgia, as it is particularly relevant to our current concerns. Barrett et al. (2010) reported that 26% of 6720 brief musical excerpts evoked nostalgia (i.e., were rated at least “somewhat nostalgic” in response to the question “How nostalgic does this song make you feel?”). Music elicited greater nostalgia (1) to the extent that it was more arousing, familiar, autobiographically relevant or emotion-provoking, and (2) among individuals who were high in dispositional proneness to nostalgic engagement. Barrett et al. also compared the emotional profile of songs that elicited nostalgia with the profile of songs that did not elicit nostalgia but did elicit other autobiographical memories and with the profile of songs that elicited neither nostalgia nor other autobiographical memories. Music-evoked nostalgia was more strongly associated with both joy and sadness compared to the other two experiential categories, which, in turn, were more strongly associated with irritation than were nostalgic experiences. We aimed, in this article, to expand on the elicitors of nostalgia and its accompanying functions. By doing so, we endeavoured to widen the scope of nostalgia research, broaden the construct’s relevance to psychological functioning and bolster its ecological validity. We were concerned, in particular, with a new nostalgia elicitor, namely scent-based cues. Scents have a special link to autobiographical memories, especially emotional ones (Chu & Downes, 2000, 2002; Erlichman & Halpern, 1988). As such, olfactory cues may readily evoke nostalgia, which is tethered to emotional memories (Hepper et al., 2012; Turner, Wildschut, Sedikides, & Gheorghiu, 2013). Many individuals have had the experience of a scent transporting them back to their elementary school or Grandmother’s house—experiences likely tinged with nostalgia. The power of scents to provoke vivid and emotionally charged autobiographical memories has been labelled the Proust phenomenon (e.g., Chu & Downes, 2000), after Proust’s forceful experience of being jolted back to his childhood upon smelling (and tasting) a teasoaked cake (Proust, 1922/1960). Research has validated several elements of the Proust phenomenon. Scent-cued memories are more distant in time relative to memories cued by verbal labels, peaking at ages 6–10 versus ages 11–25 (Chu & Downes, 2000; Willander & Larsson, 2006), thus perhaps having the potential to spark greater nostalgia (Stephan et al., 2012). Also, scent-cued memories are relatively emotional, vivid and detailed (Chu & Downes, 2002; Herz & Cupchik, 1992). For example, Herz (2004) had participants recall an autobiographical memory via a verbal label (e.g., campfire, freshly mown grass), and then re-recall this memory from olfactory (i.e., oil-based beads), visual (i.e., 5 s film clip) or auditory (5 s sound clip) cues. Scentcued memories were more emotional and evocative than memories cued via visual or auditory stimuli. In general, scent-cued memories (1) contain more emotional and relevant details than visually cued memories (Chu & Downes, 2002) and (2) are more strongly linked to a sense of being brought back in time than visually- or verbally cued memories (Willander & Larsson, 2006). One reason for the strong link between olfaction and memory emotionality may be that the olfactory bulb is linked to structures such as the amygdala and hippocampus, which are associated with emotional experience and memory (Buchanan, 2007; Cahill, Babinsky, Markowitsch, & McGaugh, 1995). According to positron emission tomography studies, olfactory cues activate the amygdala more than auditory or visual cues do, while scent-cued (compared to word-cued) memories are associated with greater limbic and temporal lobe activity, which is involved in positive memory processing (Royet et al., 2000). In addition, autobiographical information that is retrieved following an olfactory cue is related to more widespread prefrontal cortex activity, a region involved in autobiographical memory retrieval (Arshamian et al., 2013). These findings suggest that nostalgia may be elicited by olfactory stimuli. This possibility, Downloaded by [92.18.8.45] at 06:36 27 January 2014 SCENT-EVOKED NOSTALGIA however, has received almost no empirical attention. In fact, we are aware of only one study to date that directly links scents to nostalgia. Participants from several countries responded to a scale that assessed scent-evoked feelings; nostalgia was one of the nine resulting feelings (Ferdenzi et al., 2013). Our research zeroes in exclusively on the olfactory elicitation of nostalgia while also examining its accompanying psychological functions. We addressed five issues. First, we tested directly whether scents elicit nostalgia. Second, we asked whether scents are susceptible to similar contingencies as is music (Barrett et al., 2010) in eliciting nostalgia: do scents evoke stronger nostalgia to the extent that they are more arousing, familiar or autobiographically relevant, and among nostalgiaprone individuals? Third, we wondered whether nostalgia evoked by scents serves the same six psychological functions as nostalgia evoked by narrative writing tasks and exposure to song lyrics/music. These functions (which were not assessed in research on music-induced nostalgia by Barrett et al., 2010) are: positive affect, selfesteem, self-continuity, optimism, social connectedness and meaning in life (Cheung et al., 2013; Hepper et al., 2012; Routledge et al., 2011; Sedikides et al., 2013; Wildschut et al., 2006; Zhou et al., 2008). Fourth, we asked whether scent-evoked nostalgic experiences comprise a similar emotional profile to that of music-induced nostalgic experiences (Barrett et al., 2010). Finally, we examined whether scent-evoked nostalgia predicts in-the-moment (i.e., state) feelings of personal nostalgia, be it general or object-specific. METHOD Stimuli First, we conducted a pilot study to identify the most appropriate scents which we would use for nostalgia evocation in the main study. Undergraduate students (N = 72; 31 women, 13 men, 28 unreported) from introductory psychology courses at a large, public university (Mage = 19.34, SDage = 2.84) sampled in a random sequence 33 pleasant and neutral scented oils (e.g., Christmas tree, buttered popcorn, baby powder) obtained from a company (Nature’s Garden Wholesale Candle and Soap Supplies) that sells fragrances in 1/2 ounce vials. For each scent, participants indicated how nostalgic it made them feel (1 = not at all, 7 = very much). Of the 1378 scent ratings, 718 (52.10%) 3 ratings were at or above the midpoint of this nostalgia scale (i.e., equal to or greater than 4).1 We retained for use in the main study the 12 scents (out of 33) with the highest corrected itemtotal correlations (treating scents as items). These selected scents were: Chanel #5 (perfume; .93), purrs and paws (a pet fragrance scented with citrus and fresh flowers; .91), money (.91), eggnog (.88), apple pie (.85), pumpkin pie spice (.83), fresh-cut roses (.82), cappuccino (.81), cotton candy (.80), baby powder (.78), lavender flowers (.78) and oceans (.77). (The numbers in parentheses are corrected item-total correlations in the pilot study). The selected scents were not necessarily the scents with the highest mean level of nostalgia evocation. In fact, the three scents with the highest level of nostalgia evocation (i.e., Hawaiian suntan, toasted marshmallow, honeysuckle) were not selected.2 Participants Undergraduate students (N = 160; 103 women, 56 men, 1 unreported) from introductory psychology courses at a large, public and mid-Atlantic university (Mage = 20.46, SDage = 3.80) took part for course credit. Their ethnicity varied as follows: White/ Caucasian = 47.5%, Black/African-American = 22.5%, Asian = 18.1%, Hispanic/Latino = 3.8%, Other = 7.5%. Procedure Students entered the laboratory to participate in a study on “scents and memories”. We first assessed individual differences in dispositional nostalgia. Participants completed the seven-item Southampton Nostalgia Scale (SNS; Barrett et al., 2010; Routledge et al., 2008), a measure of dispositional 1 Out of a possible 2376 (72 participants × 33 scents) ratings, 1378 ratings were completed. Many participants were unable to rate all scents in the allotted study time. However, given that scents were presented in a random order, we assume that any missing data are missing at random. 2 In the pilot study (N = 72), the mean level of scent-evoked nostalgia across all 33 scents was 3.58 (SD = 1.24). In the main study (N = 160), the mean level of scent-evoked nostalgia across the 12 selected scents was 3.74 (SD = 1.07). A comparison of these two means revealed that they were not significantly different from each other, t(230) = 1.00, p = .317. Thus, on average, the smaller selection of 12 scents used in the main study did not comprise more evocative scents than the more comprehensive set of 33 scents used in the pilot study. Downloaded by [92.18.8.45] at 06:36 27 January 2014 4 REID ET AL. nostalgia. The SNS consists of four items that assess frequency of (e.g., “How often do you experience nostalgia”) or proneness to (e.g., “How prone are you to feeling nostalgia”) nostalgic engagement and three items that assess personal relevance of nostalgic engagement (e.g., “How valuable is nostalgia for you?”, “How important is it for you to bring to mind nostalgic experiences?”) (1 = not at all, 7 = very much). We averaged the items to form a dispositional nostalgia index (Cronbach’s α = .93). Participants proceeded to sample, in random order, the 12 scented oils selected from the pilot study. We presented the scents in glass test tubes, and we instructed the participants to continue smelling each scent while answering the relevant questions, before moving on to the next scent. For each scent, participants completed scent-level measures (adapted from Barrett et al., 2010). They indicated how nostalgic the scent made them feel (i.e., “How nostalgic does this scent make you feel?”), and also how arousing (i.e., “How exciting/ arousing do you find this scent?”), familiar (i.e., “How familiar is this scent?”) and autobiographically relevant (i.e., “Describe your autobiographical association with this scent. How personally relevant is this scent?”) the scent was (1 = not at all, 7 = very much). In addition, participants completed 12 validated items assessing six psychological functions of nostalgia (two items per function; Cheung et al., 2013; Hepper et al., 2012; Sedikides et al., 2013; Wildschut et al., 2006). Specifically, they rated the extent to which each scent made them feel (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree): positive affect (“happy” and “ecstatic”; α = .85), self-esteem (“good about myself” and “value myself more”; α = .96), selfcontinuity (“connected with my past” and “important aspects of my personality remain the same across time”; α = .76), optimism (“ready to take on new challenges” and “optimistic about my future”; α = .96), social connectedness (“connected to loved ones” and “loved”; α = .95) and meaning in life (“life is meaningful” and “life has a purpose”; α = .99). Furthermore, participants indicated (yes/ no) which of 12 discrete emotions (Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson, & O’Connor, 1987) they experienced in response to each scent. Six of these emotions were positive (love, affection, joy, excitement, surprise and amazement) and six were negative (anger, frustration, sadness, loneliness, fear and distress). We calculated the proportion of endorsed positive and negative emotions for each scent (i.e., the proportion of positive emotions equals the number of endorsed positive emotions divided by the total number of endorsed emotions; Barrett et al., 2010). Moreover, we formed an index of mixed emotions by creating a dummycoded variable (1 = endorsement of at least one positive emotion and at least one negative emotion, 0 = endorsement of only positive or only negative emotions). Finally, participants completed two validated state measures of personal nostalgia. One measure assesses general nostalgia (Turner, Wildschut, & Sedikides, 2012; Wildschut et al., 2006). It consists of three items: “Right now, I am feeling quite nostalgic”, “Right now, I am having nostalgic feelings” and “I feel nostalgic at the moment” (1 = strongly disagree, 6 = strongly agree; α = .93). The other measure assesses object-specific nostalgia (Batcho, 1995). For this measure, participants rated how nostalgic they felt for 20 “objects” from when they were younger. Examples are: my childhood toys, my family, holidays I went on, my pets, my family house, past TV shows, someone I loved (1 = not at all nostalgic, 7 = very nostalgic; α = .84). Demographic questions and debriefing concluded the experimental session. RESULTS Do scents elicit nostalgia? Table 1 presents a rank-ordering of scents based on the number of times each scent was rated at or above the midpoint of the nostalgia scale (“How nostalgic does this scent make you feel?”; 1 = not at all, 7 = very much). Of the 1906 scent presentations, 1027 (53.88%) were rated at or above the scale midpoint.3 This is more than double the percentage of musical excerpts in Barrett et al.’s (2010) study that received such ratings (26%). This high level of nostalgia experienced in response to scents cannot be attributed to exclusive selection of highly nostalgia-evoking scents. We discussed this issue in footnote 2. We would also like to add that 8 of the 12 selected scents (i.e., purrs and paws, money, eggnog, apple pie, fresh cut roses, cappuccino, cotton candy and 3 Out of a possible 1920 (160 participants × 12 scents) ratings, 1906 ratings were completed. A few participants were unable to rate all scents in the allotted study time. However, as in the pilot study, we assume that, because scents were presented in a random order, any missing data are missing at random. We also note that all scents were rated by at least 158 participants. SCENT-EVOKED NOSTALGIA 5 TABLE 1 Rank order of scents in terms of capacity to evoke nostalgia Scent Downloaded by [92.18.8.45] at 06:36 27 January 2014 Pumpkin pie spice Chanel #5 (perfume) Lavender flowers Baby powder Cotton candy Eggnog Apple pie Fresh cut roses Oceans Cappuccino Purrs and paws Money Total Total presentations Presentations rated as nostalgic Percentage of presentations rated as nostalgic 158 158 160 159 160 158 158 160 159 160 158 158 1906 107 103 99 97 95 90 88 88 86 77 59 38 1027 67.72 65.19 61.88 61.01 59.38 56.96 55.70 55.00 54.09 48.13 37.34 24.05 53.88 Note: Following Barrett et al. (2010) we scored scent presentations as evoking nostalgia when participants assigned a rating equal to or greater than the midpoint (i.e., 4–7) on the nostalgia scale (“How nostalgic does this scent make you feel?”; 1 = not at all, 7 = very much). oceans) had mean levels of scent-evocation below the scale-midpoint for nostalgia-evocation. We conclude that scents, relative to songs, constitute a potent nostalgia inducer. Scent-evoked nostalgia: Multilevel model We collected data at the person level (dispositional nostalgia) and the scent level (each participant’s ratings pertaining to each of 12 scents). Due to the multilevel nature of the data and the likelihood that responses to scent-level measures may not be independent within participant, we used mixed effects multilevel models (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). Following recommendations by Singer (1998), we centred the personlevel measure across participants, and we centred the scent-level measures (except for mixed emotions, which was dummy coded) within participants. We conducted multilevel model analyses within SAS PROC MIXED using restricted maximum likelihood estimation and an unstructured variance/covariance structure. We first partitioned the variance in scent-evoked nostalgia into between-subjects and within-subjects components by estimating an intercept-only model (Singer, 1998). We obtained an intraclass correlation of .22, z = 6.89, p < .001. Thus, 22% of the total variance in scent-evoked nostalgia ratings occurs between participants, thereby confirming that the use of multilevel models to analyze the data is appropriate. Next, we examined whether the person-level measure—dispositional nostalgia as assessed by the SNS—predicted the average strength of scentevoked nostalgia. We controlled for dependence in the data by treating the intercept as both a fixed and random effect. Dispositional nostalgia significantly predicted strength of scent-evoked nostalgia, B = .06, t(137) = 2.13, p = .03. Participants who were high in dispositional nostalgia reported stronger scent-evoked nostalgia across scents. These findings are conceptually similar to Barrett et al.’s (2010) in regard to music-evoked nostalgia. We next estimated a combined multilevel model including scent- and person-level measures, as well as all possible cross-level interactions. To be precise, we regressed scent-evoked nostalgia on the following scent-level predictors: arousal, familiarity, autobiographical relevance, proportion of positive emotions, proportion of negative emotions and presence (vs. absence) of mixed emotions. We also examined the personlevel measure (SNS) again, as well as all possible cross-level interactions. We controlled for dependence in the data by treating the intercept as both a fixed and random effect. We modelled all scent-level predictors, except negative emotions, as both fixed and random effects. We modelled proportion of negative emotions as a fixed effect only, because the association between negative emotions and intensity of 6 REID ET AL. TABLE 2 Scent-evoked nostalgia as a function of scent- and person-level measures: unstandardized parameter estimates Effect Downloaded by [92.18.8.45] at 06:36 27 January 2014 Intercept Scent arousal Scent familiarity Scent autobiographical relevance Number of positive emotions Number of negative emotions Presence (vs. absence) of mixed emotions Nostalgia proneness (SNS) Scent arousal × SNS Scent familiarity × SNS Scent autobiographical relevance × SNS Number of positive emotions × SNS Number of negative emotions × SNS Presence of mixed emotions × SNS B df t p 4.77 .28 .19 .36 .50 .37 .10 .08 −.01 .02 .03 −.16 −.23 .16 137 1497 1497 1497 1497 1497 1497 137 1497 1497 1497 1497 1497 1497 90.71 8.78 5.59 10.10 2.99 2.09 .86 1.91 −.36 .78 1.13 −1.17 −1.52 1.77 <.001 <.001 <.001 <.001 .003 .037 .392 .058 .720 .433 .259 .242 .129 .078 scent-evoked nostalgia did not vary significantly between participants (Singer, 1998).4 We present the results for this combined multilevel analysis in Table 2. All scent-level predictors significantly predicted scent-evoked nostalgia, with the exception of mixed emotions. On average, participants reported more nostalgia when smelling scents that they found arousing, familiar and autobiographically relevant. They also reported more nostalgia when smelling scents that prompted a greater proportion of positive and of negative emotions. As before, higher levels of dispositional nostalgia predicted greater scent-evoked nostalgia, albeit marginally. The analysis did not reveal significant interaction effects between dispositional nostalgia and the scent-level predictors on scent-evoked nostalgia. In all, the results paralleled those of Barrett et al. (2010). Scents are subject to similar contingencies as is music in 4 We developed the multilevel model by taking the following steps. First, we estimated a baseline model in which we treated all scent-level predictors treated as fixed effects only. We then compared this baseline model to a second model in which we treated all scent-level predictors as both fixed and random effects. A comparison of these models showed that adding the random effects resulted in a significant decrease in the –2 log likelihood, χ2(27) = 282.37, p < .001, indicating better model fit when the associations between scent-level measures and scentevoked nostalgia were allowed to vary between participants, which parallels the results of Barrett et al. (2010). Given that results for the second model showed that the association between negative emotions and scent-evoked nostalgia did not vary significantly between participants, we tested a modified final model in which we modeled negative emotions as a fixed effect only. This modification resulted in a significant decrease in the –2 log likelihood, χ2(7) = 16.79, p = .03, indicating better model fit when the association between negative emotions and scent-evoked nostalgia was not allowed to vary between participants (but all other associations were). eliciting nostalgia: Scents evoke stronger nostalgia to the extent that they are more arousing, familiar or autobiographically relevant, and to the extent that they engender a higher proportion of positive and of negative emotions. In the study by Barrett et al. (2010), cross-level interactions involving dispositional nostalgia also made a minor contribution to predicting, in their case, music-evoked nostalgia. Scent-evoked nostalgia: Psychological functions We also examined whether nostalgia elicited by scents serves the same psychological functions as nostalgia elicited by narrative-writing tasks or song lyrics/music. Stated otherwise, we examined whether nostalgia evoked by the scents was associated with each of six functions: positive affect, self-esteem, self-continuity, optimism, social connectedness and meaning in life. We used SAS PROC MIXED to run a series of models testing if scent-evoked nostalgia predicts these six functions. We controlled for dependence in the data by treating the intercepts in these models as both fixed and random effect (Singer, 1998). We present the results of these analyses in Table 3. Indeed, higher levels of scentevoked nostalgia predicted higher levels of scentevoked positive affect, self-esteem, self-continuity, optimism, social connectedness and meaning in life. Scent-evoked nostalgia: Emotional profile What is the emotional profile of scent-evoked nostalgia and how does it compare to that of music-evoked nostalgia? Following Barrett et al. SCENT-EVOKED NOSTALGIA 7 Downloaded by [92.18.8.45] at 06:36 27 January 2014 TABLE 3 Psychological functions as predicted by scent-evoked nostalgia Function B df t p Positive affect Self-esteem Self-continuity Optimism Social connectedness Meaning in life .52 .42 .52 .33 .57 .41 1712 1715 1714 1710 1715 1711 35.59 29.76 40.62 23.95 36.32 27.09 <.001 <.001 <.001 <.001 <.001 <.001 (2010), we addressed this question by first distinguishing between three experiential categories: scents that evoke nostalgia (those scents rated 2 or higher on the nostalgia rating scale: “How nostalgic does this scent make you feel?”), scents that do not evoke nostalgia but evoke other autobiographical memories (those scents rated 1 on the nostalgia rating scale, and 2 or higher on the autobiographical rating scale: “Please describe your autobiographical association with this scent”), and scents that neither evoked nostalgia nor other autobiographical memories (those scents rated 1 on both the nostalgia and the autobiographical rating scale). We then compared the overall proportions of positive, negative and mixed emotional experiences between the three experiential categories. We display, in Figure 1, the overall proportion of positive, negative and mixed emotions reported for each experiential category.5 Positive emotions were more prominent for nostalgic scents than for either non-nostalgic autobiographical scents or for non-nostalgic nonautobiographical scents. For nostalgic scents, the ratio of positive to negative emotions was 3:1, whereas for non-nostalgic autobiographical scents this ratio was 0.17:1 and for non-nostalgic nonautobiographical scents this ratio was 0.40:1. Nostalgic scents, then, engender substantially more positive emotionality than the other two experiential categories. Next, we examined whether positive, negative and mixed emotions were present at significantly different levels among the three experiential 5 For the purpose of these analyses, we defined as nostalgic those scents that were rated 2 or higher (1 = not at all [nostalgic], 7 = very much [nostalgic]). This served to differentiate these scents from non-nostalgic scents, that is, scents rated 1. Doing so enabled us to replicate similar analyses reported in Barrett et al. (2010). For the purpose of identifying the number of scent presentations that were rated as nostalgic (Table 1), we used a more stringent criterion: scents were deemed to elicit nostalgia when they received a rating equal to or greater than the scale midpoint (4) (also following Barrett et al., 2010). categories. We conducted analyses in SAS PROC MIXED (for positive and negative emotions) and PROC GLIMMIX (for mixed emotions, a dichotomous dependent variable), using a Tukey–Kramer adjustment to control the familywise error rate in post-hoc comparisons between the three experiential categories. Given that we examined experienced emotion at the scent-level, we treated the intercept in these models as both fixed and random effect to control for dependence in the data due to individuals rating multiple scents. Experiential category had a significant effect on the presence of positive emotions, F(2, 1744) = 139.01, p < .001. Participants reported a higher proportion of positive emotions for nostalgic scents (M = 0.33, SD = 0.27) than for either nonnostalgic autobiographical scents (M = 0.16, SD = 0.17), t(1903) = –6.20, p < .001, d = 0.75, or nonnostalgic non-autobiographical scents (M = 0.06, SD = 0.12), t(1744) = –16.19, p < .001, d = 1.29. Experiential category also had a significant effect on the presence of negative emotions, F(2, 1744) = 20.85, p < .001. Participants reported a lower proportion of negative emotions for nostalgic scents (M = 0.09, SD = 0.17) than for non-nostalgic non-autobiographical scents (M = 0.15, SD = 0.18), t(1744) = 6.46, p < .001, d = –0.34, albeit not lower than for non-nostalgic autobiographical scents (M = 0.10, SD = 0.16), t(1744) = 0.96, p = .60, d = –0.06. We also examined the presence of mixed emotions in each experiential category. We determined the presence (vs. absence) of mixed emotions experienced (i.e., one or more negative emotions and one or more positive emotions endorsed for a given scent presentation) for each scent and then analyzed this dichotomous variable as a function of experiential category. We ran the statistical analyses in SAS PROC GLIMMIX, which allowed us to model mixed emotions as a dependent variable with a binomial distribution. Experiential category had a marginal effect on the presence of mixed emotions, F(2, 1745) = 2.59, REID ET AL. Amoun to fEmotion Experienced (Proportion) 8 0.35 0.3 0.25 Negative Emotions 0.2 Positive Emotions 0.15 Mixed Emotions 0.1 0.05 0 Nost. Non-nost. Autobio. Non-nost. Non-autobio. Downloaded by [92.18.8.45] at 06:36 27 January 2014 Figure 1. Proportion of positive, negative, and mixed emotions reported across scents for each experiential category (Nost. = nostalgic scents, Non-nost. Autobio. = non-nostalgic autobiographical scents, Non-nost. Non-Autobio. = non-nostalgic nonautobiographical scents). p = .08. Compared to nostalgic scents (M = 0.14, SD = 0.35), participants tended to report a lower proportion of mixed emotions for non-nostalgic non-autobiographical scents (M = 0.08, SD = 0.28), t(1745) = –2.10, p = .09, d = 0.10, but not so for non-nostalgic autobiographical scents (M = 0.11, SD = 0.31), t(1745) = –1.11, p = .27, d = 0.05. Note that Barrett et al. (2010) found significant differences among the three experiential categories on mixed emotions. Does scent-evoked nostalgia predict state personal nostalgia? Finally, we tested whether scent-evoked nostalgia predicts general (Wildschut et al., 2006) and object-specific (Batcho, 1995) state nostalgia. Both general and object-specific nostalgia were measured at the person-level. Therefore, it was necessary for us also to create a person-level index of scent-evoked nostalgia. We indexed scentevoked nostalgia for each participant by calculating the average nostalgia rating (“How nostalgic does this scent make you feel?”; 1= not at all, 7 = very much) across the 12 scents (α = .80). We then conducted regression analyses predicting state personal nostalgia from this scent-evoked nostalgia index. Participants who reported higher levels of scent-evoked nostalgia also reported higher levels of general state nostalgia, β = .51, t(150) = 7.31, p < .001, and of object-specific state nostalgia, β = .33, t(150) = 4.33, p < .001. Scent-evoked nostalgia thus predicted both general and objectspecific state nostalgia. DISCUSSION Researchers have induced nostalgia through narrative tasks, song lyrics and music. Capitalising on suggestive psychological (Chu & Downes, 2002; Herz, 2004; Willander & Larsson, 2006) and neuroscience (Arshamian et al., 2013; Buchanan, 2007; Cahill et al.,1995) evidence, we wondered whether scents could also evoke nostalgia. In so doing, we aimed to expand the agenda for nostalgia research by (1) identifying new elicitors of the emotion, (2) linking these elicitors to structural and functional aspects of the emotion and (3) strengthening the ecological validity of the nature and functions of the emotion. Summary of findings The majority of scents (52% in the pilot study, 53% in the main study) received ratings equal to or greater than the midpoint of the nostalgia scale, which is more than double the proportion of musical excerpts receiving similar ratings (i.e., 26%; Barrett et al., 2010). In addition, scentevoked nostalgia was subject to similar contingencies as music-evoked nostalgia (Barrett et al., 2010). Scents rated as arousing, familiar or autobiographically relevant were particularly likely to elicit nostalgia, as were scents linked to a greater proportion of positive and of negative emotions. Also, participants who were especially prone to nostalgic reverie reported greater scent-evoked nostalgia. Moreover, nostalgia elicited by scents served the same psychological functions as nostalgia prompted by narratives and song lyrics/music (Cheung et al., 2013; Hepper et al., 2012; Downloaded by [92.18.8.45] at 06:36 27 January 2014 SCENT-EVOKED NOSTALGIA Routledge et al., 2011; Sedikides et al., 2013; Wildschut et al., 2006; Zhou et al., 2008): positive affect, self-esteem, self-continuity, optimism, social connectedness, meaning in life. In general, scent-evoked nostalgia was characterised by a similar emotional profile as musicevoked nostalgia (Barrett et al., 2010). The former engendered greater positive emotion and a higher proportion of positive to negative emotion relative either to non-nostalgic autobiographical scents or non-nostalgic non-autobiographical scents. Scentevoked nostalgia also engendered lower negative emotion than non-nostalgic non-autobiographical scents. Compared to music-evoked nostalgia (Barrett et al., 2010), scent-evoked nostalgia evinced a less pronounced trend toward engendering mixed emotion (compared to non-nostalgic non-autobiographical scents). Finally, scent-evoked nostalgia predicted both general and object-specific state nostalgia. Rather than being an idiosyncratic and esoteric form of nostalgic reflection, scent-evoked nostalgia is integrally linked with other, established forms of nostalgic engagement. 9 Nostalgia prompted by narratives has self-protective benefits. For example, it buffers individuals from self-threat (e.g., negative feedback; Vess, Arndt, Routledge, Sedikides, & Wildschut, 2010). Does scent-evoked nostalgia also buffer against self-threatening information? Moreover, do individuals spontaneously resort to scents as an effort to evoke nostalgia for coping with life’s vicissitudes (e.g., loneliness, boredom, meaninglessness and self-discontinuity)? These empirical questions could be fruitfully explored in future research. Coda In the opening quote, the scent of yeast in a kitchen aroused not only memories of the author’s mother but also of her past self as a mother. Our research indicated that the scents can powerfully elicit nostalgia, which, in turn, serves pivotal psychological functions. The findings provide insight into the operation of nostalgia and the modalities that trigger it. We hope that our findings add momentum for additional work in this burgeoning area of inquiry. Implications and future research REFERENCES The finding that scents can contribute to a powerful evocation of nostalgia adds to the understanding of the nature and prevalence of this emotion. It can be elicited not only by narratives, song lyrics or music (Barrett et al., 2010; Routledge et al., 2008, 2011), but also by scents. Given the prevalence of scents in one’s natural environment, nostalgia is likely to be incited more frequently than three times a week—an estimated average produced on the basis of previous research, which relied exclusively on self-reports (Wildschut et al., 2006). While testifying to an empirical link between olfaction and nostalgia, the findings raise an issue regarding the relation between nostalgia and its sources (e.g., words, song lyrics, music and scents). The emotional profile of scent-evoked nostalgia (compared to non-nostalgic autobiographical scents and non-nostalgic non-autobiographical scents) was characterised by greater incidence of positive emotions, but not of mixed emotions—at least not to a similar degree as music-evoked nostalgia (compared to non-nostalgic autobiographical songs and non-nostalgic non-autobiographical songs; Barrett et al., 2010). Thus, the precise pattern of accompanying emotional responses may depend partially on the mode of nostalgic evocation. 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