How and Why to Measure Personal and Historical Nostalgic Responses Through Entertainment Media

Nostalgia is increasingly and successfully used as a means to attract media recipients. But what are the effects of different types of nostalgic responses through movies, songs, and video games, and how and why should they be measured? To clarify this, the personal and historical nostalgia scales questions were validated in a media context by conducting exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and both regression and correlation analyses (studies 1 and 2). Thus, media researchers can now measure personal and historical nostalgia as a response to and across three different entertainment media: films, music, and video games. The author finds positive effects of personal nostalgia on entertainment media buying and word-of-mouth intentions, contrary to historical nostalgia.