persons who are overweight, and that this effect would be mediated by greater inclusion of the outgroup “overweight” in the self, increased trust of the outgroup, reduced intergroup anxiety, and stronger common group identity. We also sought to rule out alternative explanations, namely that the improving impact of nostalgia on outgroup attitudes is due to better mood, higher positivity of the selected outgroup member, or higher typicality of the selected outgroup member. Method Participants, Design, and Procedure We tested 50 University of Leeds undergraduates (40 female, 10 male; Mage = 19.6, Rangeage = 18-29, SDage = 1.90; none visibly overweight). First, we provided all participants with the following instructions: “We are going to ask you to recall an interaction with someone you know. We would like you to bring to mind a person you know who is overweight. We would like you to choose someone you know well. This could be a (present or former) acquaintance, friend, partner, or family member. Please write down the name of this overweight person here” (space provided)”. Next, we randomly assigned participants to the nostalgia or control condition. The instructions identical to those of Experiment 1 apart from the following (italics added to highlight changes): “Please bring to mind a nostalgic / ordinary event in your life that involved interacting with the overweight person whom you identified on the previous page. Specifically, try to think of a past event involving this overweight person that makes you feel most nostalgic/is ordinary.” Subsequently, participants completed the manipulation check (as in Experiment 1) and the measures in the following order: mood, positivity of selected outgroup member, typicality of selected outgroup member, IOGS, outgroup trust, intergroup anxiety, common ingroup identity, outgroup attitudes. Finally, participants were
“… makes me feel ecstatic” (alpha = .70). To assess negative mood, participants rated (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) the following three statements: “Thinking about this interaction with an overweight person…” “…makes me feel unhappy,” “… makes me feel sad,” “… makes me feel upset” (alpha = .82). We derived positive and negative mood indices, respectively. Positivity of selected outgroup member. Participants rated the positivity of the overweight person involved in the recalled experience on the following two items: “How much do you like this individual?” (1 = not at all, 7 = very much) and “How positive is your attitude towards this individual (1 = not at all positive, 7 = very positive). We derived a relevant index, r(48) = .56, p = .001. Typicality of selected outgroup member. Participants (1 = not at all, 7 = very) the typicality of the overweight person involved in the recalled experience on two items: “How typical do you think this individual is of overweight people in general?” and “How representative do you think this individual is of overweight people in general?”. Again, we derived a relevant index, r(48) = .73, p = .001. Results Manipulation Check As intended, participants were more nostalgic in the nostalgia condition (M = 4.83, SD = .92) than in the control condition (M = 3.66, SD = 1.33), F(1, 48) = 12.88, p = .001, d = 1.42. Outgroup Attitudes We hypothesized that nostalgia improve outgroup attitude. This hypothesis was supported. Nostalgic participants (M = .20, SD = .60) relative to control participants (M = -.20, SD = .60) held a more positive attitude towards persons who are overweight, F(1, 48) = 5.43, p = .05, d = .67. With more stringent experimental
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