Nostalgia promotes help seeking by fostering social connectedness.

Individuals are often reluctant to seek help from others.Nostalgia is a highly social emotion that bolsters perceptions of connectedness with others.In six studies, we investigated whether nostalgia reduces individuals' general reluctance to reach out to others for help by virtue of its capacity to strengthen social connectedness (i.e., a sense of acceptance and support).In a preliminary study, we measured nostalgia, six comparator emotions, and help seeking.Nostalgia predicted help seeking, independently of the comparator emotions.In Experiments 1-4, we induced nostalgia (vs.control) and subsequently measured self-reported help seeking (Experiments 1-2), help seeking behavior (Experiments 3-4), and social connectedness (Experiments 2 and 4).Nostalgia increased self-reported help seeking (Experiments 1-2) and help seeking behavior (Experiments 3-4), and these effects were mediated by social connectedness (Experiments 2 and 4).In Experiment 5, we manipulated the social content of nostalgic reflections and measured help seeking behavior.Nostalgia pertaining to social (but not to non-social) past events increased help seeking.In all, nostalgia is a resource that facilitates help seeking by fostering social connectedness.