Khoshghadam, Leila, Elika Kordrostami, and Yuping Liu-Thompkins (in press), “Experiencing Nostalgia Through the Lens of Life Satisfaction,” European Journal of Marketing. [Download Full-Text PDF]
Abstract: This paper examines the role of life satisfaction in consumers’ reaction to nostalgic music in an advertisement. It proposes that evoking nostalgia does not necessarily lead to positive persuasive outcomes due to the reconstructive nature of past emotions. Through two experiments, we show that one’s current level of life satisfaction colors the lens through which one evaluates past life events as positive or negative and subsequently influences the effects of nostalgia. We further find that this applies more to low-involvement products where peripheral cues such as background music play a more important role in consumers’ responses to advertisements. Our findings warn against blind use of nostalgic appeals in advertising, point to the need to consider the audience’s state of mind, and suggest an opportunity to leverage life satisfaction influencers in designing effective advertising campaigns.