Nostalgia Effect

Alex is being careful with their money and is working towards their long-term goals of buying a house, having a nice car, and living a comfortable lifestyle. They are avoiding spending money on anything that isn’t essential. Then, one day, Alex is watching television and sees an advertisement that depicts a family on vacation at a national park. They’re shown hiking beautiful trails, swimming in lakes, and laughing together over dinner back at their hotel. This commercial takes Alex back to their childhood, when they used to go on family vacations to national parks. Some of their fondest memories are of exploring the trails with their siblings. Suddenly, Alex has the urge to plan a vacation with their friends. They could rent a cottage and spend the weekend hiking, swimming, and enjoying each other’s company. After all, Alex reasons, it’s more important to make memories than it is to save money. In this case, the nostalgia Alex experienced while watching the commercial depicting a family vacation made them more willing to spend money in the name of social connectedness, despite the fact that they had been being very mindful of their spending.