The Nostalgia Trap: The impact of British Attitudes to the Past on Contemporary Immigration Attitudes and Other Political Behaviours

Attention to the past provides psychological benefits to individuals and fulfils social-psychological roles for wider communities. It can serve as a coping mechanism in times of stress and, in the aggregate, can enhance social connectedness among ingroup members. Behaviourally it can manifest itself both progressively, sparking claims to restorative justice, or regressively, with a heightened attention to exclusivity and perceived past/current threats to outsiders. Drawing on survey data collected across the UK this paper examines patterns in attention to the past, distinguishing between generalised nostalgia and specific events. It examines who thinks the past was better and why, with particular attention to the responses of young people, how they link to attitudes to migration, and how they align with past and future political behaviour. Throughout the paper seeks to identify why we see such attention to the past in the UK and what challenges it poses to current political debate.

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