Place Nostalgia Scale

What it measures

Measures the extent to which a consumer experiences a positive sentimental attachment to a specific place because of personally significant events or memories associated with it. Captures the degree to which the place evokes nostalgic feelings and prompts reminiscence about meaningful past experiences, contributing to a sense of emotional connection rooted in personal history rather than in the place's current physical or social characteristics.

Scale items

• This place makes me feel sentimental or nostalgic.
• This place reminds me of past accomplishments or other important events in my life.
• When I think about this place, I am reminded about good things that have happened in my life.
• When I am at this place, I reminisce about good events from my past.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Originally validated in a restaurant context using a community sample (n = 907) but item wording is applicable to a wide range of retail and non-retail places with which meaningful personal memories can be associated. Draws on the conceptual and measurement work of Ball and Tasaki (1992) on consumer attachment and nostalgia. Validated alongside the Place Attachment - Physical (ID 637), Place Attachment - Social (ID 638), and Place Distinction (ID 639) scales from the same study; the four scales form a multi-component sense-of-place battery. Attenuated reliability = .95. AVE = .82, supporting convergent validity. Items use a 7-point Likert format.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Brocato, E.D., Baker, J., & Voorhees, C.M. (2015). Creating consumer attachment to retail service firms through sense of place. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(2), 200-220.

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