title: In search of meaningfulness: nostalgia as an antidote to boredom.
abstract: We formulated, tested, and supported, in 6 studies, a theoretical model according to which individuals use nostalgia as a way to reinject meaningfulness in their lives when they experience boredom. Studies 1-3 established that induced boredom causes increases in nostalgia when participants have the opportunity to revert to their past. Studies 4 and 5 examined search for meaning as a mediator of the effect of boredom on nostalgia. Specifically, Study 4 showed that search for meaning mediates the effect of state boredom on nostalgic memory content, whereas Study 5 demonstrated that search for meaning mediates the effect of dispositional boredom on dispositional nostalgia. Finally, Study 6 examined the meaning reestablishment potential of nostalgia during boredom: Nostalgia mediates the effect of boredom on sense of meaningfulness and presence of meaning in one's life. Nostalgia counteracts the meaninglessness that individuals experience when they are bored.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Castletroy, Republic of Ireland. Wijnand.vanTilburg@ul.ie
authors.forename: Wijnand A P
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: van Tilburg
authors.forename: Eric R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Igou
authors.forename: Constantine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sedikides
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001887:Boredom; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D055815:Young Adult