TY - JOUR
T1 - Empathetic listening boosts nostalgia levels and positive emotions in autobiographical narrators
AU - Sugimori, Eriko
AU - Shimokawa, Kazuma
AU - Aoyama, Yuki
AU - Kita, Tomoya
AU - Kusumi, Takashi
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science ( JSPS ), Japan ( JP16H02837 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s)
PY - 2020/8
Y1 - 2020/8
N2 - Nostalgic memories serve to increase human resilience. Here, we hypothesized that emotional impressions on a narrator's nostalgic memory change depending on the level of empathy in the listener's response. This independent-measures study was conducted in 120 healthy Japanese undergraduates (66 women, 54 men, Mage 20.3 ± 1.9 years). Nostalgia was induced using a medley of Japanese pop songs from the years 2006–2010. Thirty minutes later each participant was randomly allocated to be interviewed by an experimenter who applied one of three listening conditions: empathy, non-empathy, or non-response. Output measures were participant's talking time, nostalgia ratings, and positive and negative emotion ratings. Data were analyzed by analysis of variance followed by a multiple comparisons test. Empathy group participants had a significantly longer talking time than non-empathy or non-response participants, higher nostalgia scores than non-response participants, and higher positive emotion scores than non-empathy and non-response participants, but lower negative emotion scores than non-reponse participants. Participants were then divided into a less nostalgia-prone and a more nostalgia-prone group using the Southampton Nostalgia Rating Scale and the data were reanalyzed for each experimental condition. The results showed that a person more prone to nostalgia felt more nostalgic and more positive toward their autobiographical memory than those who are less nostalgia-prone. The present findings have implications for human interaction in everyday life and in therapeutic settings.
AB - Nostalgic memories serve to increase human resilience. Here, we hypothesized that emotional impressions on a narrator's nostalgic memory change depending on the level of empathy in the listener's response. This independent-measures study was conducted in 120 healthy Japanese undergraduates (66 women, 54 men, Mage 20.3 ± 1.9 years). Nostalgia was induced using a medley of Japanese pop songs from the years 2006–2010. Thirty minutes later each participant was randomly allocated to be interviewed by an experimenter who applied one of three listening conditions: empathy, non-empathy, or non-response. Output measures were participant's talking time, nostalgia ratings, and positive and negative emotion ratings. Data were analyzed by analysis of variance followed by a multiple comparisons test. Empathy group participants had a significantly longer talking time than non-empathy or non-response participants, higher nostalgia scores than non-response participants, and higher positive emotion scores than non-empathy and non-response participants, but lower negative emotion scores than non-reponse participants. Participants were then divided into a less nostalgia-prone and a more nostalgia-prone group using the Southampton Nostalgia Rating Scale and the data were reanalyzed for each experimental condition. The results showed that a person more prone to nostalgia felt more nostalgic and more positive toward their autobiographical memory than those who are less nostalgia-prone. The present findings have implications for human interaction in everyday life and in therapeutic settings.
KW - Autobiographical memory
KW - Autobiographical narrator
KW - Emotion
KW - Empathetic listening
KW - Nostalgia
KW - Psychology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089262707&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85089262707&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04536
DO - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04536
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089262707
VL - 6
JO - Heliyon
JF - Heliyon
SN - 2405-8440
IS - 8
M1 - e04536
ER -