Nostalgia can make you feel warmer: study

Nostalgic thoughts literally give us a warm glow, a new study has found, suggesting that heart-warming memories make it easier for us to withstand cold temperatures and make us feel physically warmer.

Researchers said the phenomenon can be explained by a cross-over in the brain, with a region involved in feelings also being key to how the body feels.

The study by the University of Southampton investigated the effects of nostalgic feelings on reaction to cold and the perception of warmth. The volunteers, from universities in China and the Netherlands, took part in one of five studies.

"Nostalgia is experienced frequently and virtually by everyone and we know that it can maintain psychological comfort. For example, nostalgic reverie can combat loneliness. We wanted to take that a step further and assess whether it can also maintain physiological comfort," Dr Tim Wildschut, senior lecturer at the University of Southampton said.

"Our study has shown that nostalgia serves a homoeostatic function, allowing the mental simulation of previously enjoyed states, including states of bodily comfort; in this case making us feel warmer or increasing our tolerance of cold," said Wildschut in a statement.

Researchers asked participants to keep an account of their nostalgic feelings over 30 days. Results showed they felt more nostalgic on colder days.

The second study put participants in one of three rooms: cold (20 degree Celsius), comfortable (24 degree Celsius) and hot (28 degree Celsius), and then measured how nostalgic they felt.

Participants felt more nostalgic in the cold room than in the comfortable and hot rooms. The volunteers in the comfortable and hot rooms did not differ.

The third study, which was conducted on-line, used music to evoke nostalgia to see if it was linked to warmth. The participants who said the music made them feel nostalgic also tended to say that the music made them feel physically warmer.

The fourth study tested the effect of nostalgia on physical warmth by placing participants in a cold room and instructing them to recall either a nostalgic or ordinary event from their past. They were then asked to guess the temperature of the room.

The study was published in the journal Emotion.