Good Question: What Is Nostalgia? And How Is It Triggered?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - It's one-of-a-kind story that has brought out all the feels. Our discovery of Prince as an 11-year-old has fans taking sudden trips down memory lane.
We wanted to know: What is nostalgia? And how is it triggered? Good Question.
Sometimes words simply aren't enough to articulate the emotions Prince fans felt when they saw his 11-year-old self share his thoughts on a teacher's strike in Minneapolis 52 years ago.
"I don't even know how to describe it, it's indescribable," said fan Teresa Lewis.
"I can't really explain it, it just felt good," added fan Kenneth Dennard.
There is a word though to describe it: nostalgia.
"It's a sentimental longing for the past," said Clay Routledge. He's a distinguished business professor at North Dakota State University who has extensively studied the psychology of nostalgia.
It's a complex feeling that often starts with a memory. It can be trigged by a song, video, or picture.
What follows is something he describes as an emotional cocktail.
"It's that warm feeling but with a tinge of loss or sadness," he said, which is exactly what Lewis went through while watching the Prince video.
"I've watched it over and over and every time, feel the same every time I see it. It makes me sad but it makes me happy at the same time," she said.
"My biggest thing was wow, Prince should have seen this (video). He would have gotten a great laugh out of it. So that's what the remorse for me was," added fan Ross Andre.
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That mixture of happiness and sadness, two ends of the emotional spectrum, is what makes nostalgia meaningful.
The third emotion that often follows is gratitude. "Like an appreciation for that moment, even though it's gone," said Routledge.
Does nostalgia unlock more memories? "There's a phrase for it: go down memory lane," said Routledge.
Nostalgia can be felt while alone but it's often shared with others. One person shares a memory about an experience with another person, who then shares their version of the memory from their perspective. It becomes a real social contagion," said Routledge. "We have unique lives but we're also connected by cultural moments."
The four Prince fans talked with are members of a Facebook group dedicated to the musician. Pictures and videos of him are posted daily, jolting members back to the good old days.
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"That's what we do now, we go back in time to have that feeling that we got when (Prince) was alive," said Dennard.
Not all nostalgia is the same. For example, Minnesota Twins fans can look back fondly on the team's two World Series wins. That feeling can be revisited if the Twins win another title.
But the strongest nostalgia comes from moments that can't be recreated or people who are no longer with us. Time is also a factor. The further away a memory becomes in our life, the stronger the nostalgia can be. Physical distance plays a role as well. "This is why like immigrating, like moving far away from home and being separated for longer periods of time is such a potent trigger of nostalgia for ones homeland because it's both that space and time," said Routledge.
Besides nostalgia, the news story about Prince helped bring positivity when many might be yearning for it. Amidst a pandemic, economic uncertainty, war in Ukraine, and other stressful situations across the world, watching old friends of Prince find joy in seeing him as an 11-year-old can be contagious.
"In times when society feels like there's a lot of tension and chaos and stress, I think we're especially moved, or especially hungry for opportunities to feel that human connection," said Routledge.
