Agnosticism and atheism are often grouped simply as nonreligious identities, yet emerging research highlights their distinct psychological profiles and social implications. Among these distinctions, collective narcissism - char-acterized by strong attachment to one's group, exceptionalism, and grie-vance for recognition - offers a framework for understanding identity processes in both nonreligious groups. We examined whether agnostics and atheists exhibit collective narcissism and its forms (agentic - focused on exceptional effectiveness; communal - focused on exceptional morality) similarly to believers. We explored cross-denominational variance in agentic and communal collective narcissism levels relying on data from 77 countries (N = 3,570; 1227 agnostics, 2343 atheists). Agnostics and atheists from secular countries reported lower collective (particularly agentic) narcissism relative to their counterparts from religious countries. Further, agnostics and atheists were higher on communal than agentic collective narcissism. The results highlight the utility of the agency-communion model of collective narcissism among nonbelievers.

We address the relation between personal nostalgia and psychological richness, and the mediating role of self-humanity, across four studies (N = 2,585). In cross-sectional Studies 1a-1b, nostalgia was positively associated with psychological richness, and self-humanity mediated this association. In experimental Study 2, nostalgia increased both self-humanity and psychological richness, with self-humanity mediating the effect of nostalgia on psychological richness. Finally, in experimental Study 3, self-humanity augmented psychological richness, thus providing support for a causal chain model. Collectively, these findings establish a novel psychological pathway whereby nostalgic experiences enhance the perceived richness of life, in part by fostering a stronger sense of one's humanity.

Philip Zimbardo helped redefine and expand research on mental time travel through his work on time perspective (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). Nostalgia is a psychologically rich experience centered around sentimental recollection of the past, particularly momentous events involving loved ones. We hypothesized that such nostalgic reverie would enhance gratitude. We further hypothesized that social connectedness, a sense of belongingness and acceptance, would mediate this link. Three methodologically diverse studies (correlational, longitudinal, experimental) tested these two hypotheses. In Study 1, those higher in trait nostalgia were more likely to evince gratitude. In longitudinal Study 2, trait nostalgia predicted gratitude 16 months later. In experimental Study 3, participants who listened to a nostalgic song reported more gratitude than those who listened to a cheerful control song. In each study, social connectedness mediated nostalgia's association with (Studies 1-2), and causal effect on (Study 3), gratitude: nostalgia increases gratitude via heightened social connectedness.

Despite decades of research on narcissism, its neural basis remains poorly understood. Competing accounts hypothesize either heightened responsiveness to socially rewarding feedback (reflecting motives for status and validation) or neural disengagement (reflecting a self-protection motive). To test these hypotheses, we recorded EEG from 98 participants as they completed Monetary and Social Incentive Delay tasks. We measured an event-related potential, known as the Reward Positivity, to examine whether narcissism was associated with altered neural sensitivity to monetarily and socially rewarding feedback. Results revealed a domain-specific dissociation. In the Monetary Incentive Delay task, narcissism was unrelated to neural responses. However, in the Social Incentive Delay task, rivalry narcissism (and overall narcissism) was associated with reduced Reward Positivity amplitudes, whereas admiration narcissism was not. These findings support the self-protective disengagement account, suggesting that individuals high in rivalry evince blunted immediate neural sensitivity to socially rewarding feedback. This early-stage disengagement may serve to maintain a sense of detachment from the self, while limiting opportunities for social learning and connection.

Nostalgia confers numerous psychological benefits (i.e., social connectedness, meaning in life, self-continuity, self-esteem, optimism, inspiration). The emotion is most commonly induced via the Event Reflection Task, a guided imagery technique that involves a writing assignment. Can Virtual Reality induce nostalgia as effectively as the Event Reflection Task? In three experiments (N = 691), we implemented a Virtual Reality nostalgia induction and compared its impact on psychological benefits to that of the Event Reflection Task. Specifically, participants either visited a nostalgic (vs. control) location in virtual reality or wrote about a nostalgic (vs. control) event from their lives, and then completed measures of benefits. The results indicated that Virtual Reality is an effective nostalgia induction technique on par with the Event Reflection Task. We discuss methodological and applied implications of the findings.

To be successful, organizations cannot rely only on prescribing which goals employees should pursue; they must also support employees' pursuit of personal work goals. For sustained wellbeing and performance, employees need to prioritize goals they perceive as important. Based on self-regulation models, we propose that organizational nostalgia—a sentimental longing or wistful affection for past events in, and aspects of, an organization—facilitates employees' prioritization of important personal work goals, which may not necessarily align with goals prescribed by the organization. We obtained support for our hypotheses in (a) a two-wave field investigation in which we assessed individual differences in organizational nostalgia (Study 1), (b) a daily diary investigation in which we assessed momentarily experienced organizational nostalgia (Study 2), and (c) an experiment in which we demonstrated that recalling nostalgic organizational experiences aids employees in prioritizing important personal work goals, due to such experiences being appraised as more unique to employees than ordinary organizational experiences (Study 3). In all, organizations can facilitate employees' prioritization of important personal work goals by leveraging organizational nostalgia.

We examined whether the attachment dimensions of avoidance and anxiety predict the content of nostalgic recollections and accompanying well-being benefits. For this purpose, we developed a coding scheme to evaluate written narratives of nostalgic memories across three themes: self, others, affect. In Study 1 ( N = 431), all participants narrated a nostalgic event and completed an attachment orientation measure. Participants lower (vs. higher) on avoidance included more details about others, connection to others, self-expansion, and positive affect. Those lower (vs. higher) on anxiety included less positive and negative affect. In Study 2 ( N = 392), participants were randomly assigned to narrate either a nostalgic or ordinary memory and reported state well-being. Both avoidance and anxiety were associated with other-related narrative content, which in turn related to well-being benefits. Participants lower (vs. higher) on avoidance expressed greater positivity about others and connection in their nostalgic (but not control) narratives. Participants lower (vs. higher) on anxiety expressed less negativity about others in their nostalgic (but not control) narratives. Both dimensions showed indirect effects via these narrative features on well-being in the nostalgia condition. Overall, avoidance was consistently related to others’ portrayal in nostalgic narratives, whereas anxiety’s influence on nostalgia was less consistent. Attachment insecurity shapes the content of nostalgic narratives and consequent well-being outcomes.

Self-enhancement is considered a hallmark of grandiose narcissism, yet recent applications of Condition-Based Regression Analysis have questioned whether narcissistic admiration, the dimension of grandiose narcissism reflecting assertive self-enhancement, is reliably linked to self-views that overestimate one’s attributes. We reconcile these divergent accounts by integrating a process-oriented perspective on self-view formation with Condition-Based Regression Analysis, which we use as a diagnostic tool to differentiate two distinct forms of self-enhancement: unanchored self-enhancement (i.e., generally positive self-views) and anchored self-enhancement (i.e., overestimation of self-views relative to objective benchmarks). Across four studies, we examined how actual cognitive ability (truth force) and narcissistic admiration (bias force) jointly influence self-views through cue-based inference, and how these processes generate the distinct forms of self-enhancement effects in Condition-Based Regression Analysis. In Study 1, a simulation, we illustrated that the relation between narcissistic admiration and anchored inflation effects depends on degree of self-knowledge: paradoxically, some accuracy is required for anchored self-enhancement to emerge. In Study 2 (N = 1,035), we experimentally manipulated self-knowledge, showing that greater accuracy strengthens the association between narcissistic admiration and self-enhancement. In Study 3 (N = 454), we longitudinally demonstrated that narcissists’ self-views rise over time through biased cue-based inference. Finally, in Study 4 (N = 4,950), an individual participant data meta-analysis, we found that, under typical levels of self-knowledge, narcissistic admiration is related to anchored self-enhancement of cognitive ability. Cumulatively, these findings reestablish narcissism as the prototypical self-enhancing trait while clarifying the cognitive conditions under which the distinct forms of self-enhancement are detectable.

INTRODUCTION:There is limited evidence on how to tackle stigma toward individuals with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (ADRD). This study addressed this issue by examining how nostalgia (a sentimental longing for a personally experienced past) for experiences involving people with ADRD can be used to harness more positive attitudes and behavioral tendencies. METHOD:One hundred student nurses were randomly assigned to either recall a nostalgic or (in the control condition) an ordinary interaction involving a person with ADRD, before completing questionnaire measures of inclusion of people with ADRD (i.e., an outgroup) in the self (IOGS), stigma toward those with ADRD, and tendency to approach those with ADRD. RESULTS:We found that experimentally induced nostalgia led to higher inclusion of people with ADRD in the self (IOGS; F [1, 98] = 5.69, p = 0.02, η2 = 0.06) which was in turn linked to reduced stigma toward people with ADRD (F [, 98] = 8.07, p = 0.005, η2 = 0.08) and a greater tendency to approach them (F [1, 98] = 4.35, p = 0.04, η2 = 0.06). CONCLUSION:Induced nostalgia can reduce stigma and promote approach behavioral tendencies toward people within a medical context by promoting inclusion of people with ADRD in the self. These findings have interventional potential in a context where negative perceptions of people with ADRD can be problematic.

Nostalgia and declinism are often intertwined in the literature. We argue that they share a common reference to the past but differ in their psychological and social implications. Nostalgia entails a personal, meaningful connection to one's past and contributes to a positive present or optimistic future outlook. Declinism, by contrast, idealizes a societal past and contributes to a negative perception of the present and a pessimistic view of the future. Across five preregistered studies-four cross-sectional and one experimental (Sigma N = 2,300)-we empirically distinguished these constructs. Nostalgia positively, whereas declinism negatively, predicted social connectedness (Studies 1-3) and favorable responses to innovative technology such as artificial intelligence and ChatGPT (Studies 2-3). We observed these patterns when assessing nostalgia with the Southampton Nostalgia Scale and the Nostalgia Inventory, whereas no such patterns emerged with the Personal Inventory of Nostalgic Experiences-a scale that instead exhibited a high correlation with declinism (Study 4). Finally, experimentally induced nostalgia increased support for AI research compared to induced declinism (Study 5). The findings clarify theoretical distinctions between nostalgia and declinism, and offer novel insights into their broader psychological and societal consequences.

Concerned with the interplay between the self and close relationships, we examined whether nostalgia, a wistful affection for one's past, enhances self-esteem indirectly by fostering social connectedness. We also explored the boundaries of this effect across demographic, cultural, and situational contexts. Across four experiments, we manipulated nostalgia using either a guided recollection exercise (i.e., Event Reflection Task; Experiments 1-3) or a virtual reality induction (Experiment 4). In a life-span sample (Experiment 1; N = 441), a cross-cultural sample spanning 28 regions (Experiment 2; N = 2,521), a Gazan sample facing chronic adversity (Experiment 3; N = 416), and a Prolific sample subjected to a virtual reality manipulation (Experiment 4; N = 128), nostalgia reliably increased social connectedness, which in turn predicted higher self-esteem. The indirect pathway from nostalgia to self-esteem via social connectedness was robust across gender, age, and cultural indicators (i.e., individualism - collectivism, wealth, life expectancy, happiness). These findings paint nostalgia as a universally social emotion that bolsters self-esteem through heightened perceptions of belonging, even under adverse conditions. The results clarify both the psychological mechanisms and the contextual limits of nostalgia's benefits.

The literature presents two contrasting accounts on how cognitive reflection (overriding intuition with deliberation) influences susceptibility to political misinformation. According to the classical reasoning account, predominantly rooted in research on soft news, cognitive reflection improves discernment of true from false information. According to the motivated reasoning account, rooted in research on hard (policy-related) issues, individuals prone to cognitive reflection display stronger political bias and fall for politically congruent misinformation. We integrate these accounts by examining how the soft-hard distinction interacts with individuals' reasoning style to shape truth discernment and susceptibility to political bias. An integrative data analysis (IDA) combined data from 18 political misinformation studies (N = 41,289) with independent soft-hard news ratings. Additionally, two experiments (N = 666), in the United States and Greece, exposed participants to either soft or hard news. Across all datasets, participants prone to cognitive reflection displayed stronger political bias, but only when evaluating hard news. Cognitive reflection was associated with improved truth discernment for soft and hard news in the IDA, but not consistently so in the experiments. Our findings reconcile discrepancies in misinformation research and demonstrate that cognitive reflection is not a one-size-fits-all solution to political misinformation as it can exacerbate bias in policy-related issues.

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one's meaningful past, has a long and turbulent history. Once regarded a medical disease, psychiatric disorder, and clinical ailment, the emotion is now recognized to be frequent, positive, and occurring across ages. But when is nostalgia elicited and what is it for? Guided by relevant literature, and relying on experimental evidence, we derived five principles: Threat triggers nostalgia (Principle I); Nostalgia confers psychological benefits: dynamism, existential, social, consumption, morality, well-being (Principle II); Nostalgia's benefits generalize across cultures (Principle III); Nostalgia's benefits are contingent on its Person & times; Activity fit (Principle IV); Nostalgia is more than positivity (Principle V). We tested these principles meta-analytically using two datasets: (a) the Triggers dataset containing 102 effect sizes from 60 experiments reported in 34 documents (g = 0.428, 95% CI [0.361, 0.495]) in regard to Principle I, and (b) the Benefits dataset containing 1460 effect sizes from 347 experiments reported in 167 documents (g = 0.388, 95% CI [0.355, 0.420]) in regard to Principles II-V. The meta-analytic results were consistent with all five principles. Selection bias methods indicated a modest downward adjustment of the aggregate effect sizes. The findings contribute toward establishing nostalgia as a fundamental human emotion, relevant not only to psychology but also to allied disciplines.

Is nostalgia believed to have a face? We examined whether nostalgia has perceived facial expression features accompanied by trait inferences. In a Preliminary Study (N = 67), two facial actions featured in expressions of nostalgia: an averted gaze and a small smile. In Experiment 1 (N = 103), participants read vignettes with features that were central, peripheral, or unrelated to nostalgia, and subsequently selected the facial expression that best illustrated each vignette. Participants selected more frequently an expression with averted (vs. direct) gaze to illustrate vignettes with central or peripheral (vs. unrelated) features of nostalgia. In Experiment 2 (N = 306), participants selected more frequently expressions that combined an averted gaze and small smile to illustrate vignettes with central (vs. peripheral) features of nostalgia. In Experiment 3 (N = 303), participants attributed higher interpersonal warmth and nostalgia to facial expressions that combined (vs. did not combine) an averted gaze and a small smile. The findings provide first evidence for facial expression features perceived to be nostalgic—an averted gaze combined with a small smile—and show that this expression elicits attributions of interpersonal warmth.

The Israel-Hamas war has further strained relations between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. In a proof-of-concept experiment, testing 98 Israeli Jewish and 103 Israeli Arab participants, we examined whether nostalgia could be harnessed as a psychological asset for improving intergroup relations. Participants in the nostalgia condition reflected on a nostalgic interaction with an outgroup member, whereas participants in the control group reflected on an ordinary interaction with an outgroup member. Both Israeli Jewish and Israeli Arab participants in the nostalgia condition (compared to control) reported increased social connectedness and outgroup trust as well as improved outgroup attitudes and behavioural intentions. In addition, the effect of nostalgia on outgroup attitudes and behavioural intentions was serially mediated by social connectedness and outgroup trust. The findings point to nostalgia’s promise as a tool for enhancing intergroup relations.

We investigated whether GPT-based AI agents, despite presumably lacking humanlike sentience, emulate motivated behavior in group settings. We focused on overclaiming (overestimating one’s contribution to group outcomes) and the self-serving bias (taking disproportionate credit for group successes while deflecting blame for group failures). We conducted eight experiments involving a collaborative and creative group task (joke-writing). AI agents consistently overclaimed their own contributions. An egocentrism-reduction manipulation (directing attention equally to one’s own and others’ contributions) attenuated, but did not eliminate, overclaiming. Further, AI agents exhibited the self-serving bias. Overclaiming persisted across variations in temperature settings and demographic personas (gender, ethnicity), and was more pronounced in later GPT models. Chain-of-Thought reasoning did not reduce, and instead increased, overclaiming. AI systems can mimic human self-enhancement and self-protection, raising implications for the emergence of motivated self-like behavior in non-biological systems, the assumed neutrality of LLMs, and the need for improved mitigation techniques.

Conventional wisdom and the literature on organizational change management suggest that nostalgia, the sentimental longing for the past, is a maladaptive strategy to facilitate change. However, drawing on recent advances, we develop a theoretical framework to describe how the nuanced emotion of nostalgia countervails the negative effects of psychological perturbations and environmental conditions associated with change events. Our framework highlights the importance of nostalgia and its psychological benefits, namely, self-continuity, social connectedness, positive affect, and meaningfulness. Based on this framework, we provide insights into how management can strategically leverage nostalgia to increase change success, as we focus on the context of acquisitions-a significant change event for organizations and their employees.

Authenticity has captivated scholars. But what is it? An emerging view considers it exaggerated favorability (self-enhancement), whereas traditional views regard it as self-accuracy and self-consistency. We tested these theoretical views by contrasting the authentic self with the presented self, a highly desirable representation. Behaviorally, participants ascribed less positivity to the authentic self: They endorsed more negative traits and were faster to admit having them; also, they endorsed fewer positive traits and were slower to admit having them. Neurally, participants manifested preferential processing of threatening information (P1), followed by preferential processing of favorable information (N170), about the presented self (than authentic self), indicating its brittleness. At a later stage (LPP), participants engaged in more elaborate processing of threatening and favorable information about the authentic self, indicating its subjective importance. Authenticity, albeit mostly positive, allows room for negativity.

What are the places for which people are most nostalgic? We explored the physical and psychological characteristics of places that evoke nostalgia. In Study 1 (N = 200 U.K. residents), we used self-reports and dictionary methods to capture the diversity of such places. Blue landscapes, located near sea, ocean, rivers, or lakes, emerged as the most frequent nostalgic places. In Studies 2 (N = 398 U.S. residents) and 3 (N = 400 U.S. residents), we experimentally contrasted nostalgic places against ordinary ones. Self-reports, language, and geolocation data painted the portrait of typical nostalgic places: Set in a blue landscape, they vary in size between a building and a town, and are less grey and more green than ordinary places. Nostalgic places are further away from one’s current location, yet they appear psychologically closer than ordinary ones. Place nostalgia (vs. control) furthermore increases social connectedness, meaning in life, self-continuity, self-esteem, and authenticity. Future research could examine place nostalgia across different geographies, cultures, or countries.