We’re all nostalgic for some things. Oftentimes, it’s a place we’ve been to years ago, maybe during childhood. Perhaps it’s a vacation spot or some town you really enjoyed. A new study published, however, has a surprising finding: people are more likely to feel nostalgia for “blue places” — seasides, lakeshores, and riverbanks. And that nostalgia, researchers found, can offer real psychological benefits.
The geography of memory
Researchers from universities in the UK, the US, and South Korea surveyed over 1,000 participants in the U.S. and U.K., asking them to describe places they felt nostalgic about. The study was aptly titled Searching for Ithaca, as it draws on the deep cultural link between memory and place. Just as Odysseus longed for his home on the island of Ithaca, modern individuals often pine for places steeped in personal meaning.
“The idea that places serve as an emotional anchor is not new. Nearly 3,000 years ago, Homer wrote of Ulysses’ longing to return to his homeland, Ithaca. We wanted to understand what makes certain places more likely to evoke nostalgia than others. What are the physical and psychological features that give a place its nostalgic pull?” says Dr Elisabeta Militaru, who led the research during her PhD at Cambridge’s Psychology Department.
Across the board, “blue places” dominated the nostalgic landscape. About a third of all memories involved bodies of water. In contrast, only 10% of the nostalgic places cited were forests, fields, or agricultural areas. Blue places were consistently viewed as more emotionally meaningful than either green natural spaces or grey urban environments.
“We expected people to be more often nostalgic for green places since so many studies emphasise the psychological benefits of green, natural environments. We were surprised to find that blue places are the hallmark feature of place nostalgia.”
“Our findings add to the growing evidence that blue places are associated with increased psychological well-being,” Militaru says.
So, what makes blue places so memorable?
Where our blue is
One explanation is their visual structure. Blue places tend to be brighter, more saturated in color, and higher in contrast than green or grey environments. These visual properties are known to evoke emotional responses and can enhance the sense of aesthetic pleasure.
Militaru also points to the potential power of a landscape’s ‘fractal property’. In other words, elements around seas and rivers tend to have elements that repeat themselves visually..
“Past research suggests that landscapes with moderate fractal structure, like coastlines, tend to generate positive emotions,” continues Militaru. “People don’t like extremely chaotic outlines of the kind you might see in the middle of the forest, where you don’t get a sense of openness. People also don’t like too little complexity. With an urban skyline, for instance, there are very few breaks in the scene’s pattern.”
Seaside, rivers, and lakes may give us the optimal visual complexity, she says, but this is still speculative.
There’s also a special feeling often associated to blue places. If you don’t live by the coast, the odds are you go to the sea on vacation. Meanwhile, cities are all … just cities.
“It’s important to note that urban places are more often classed as being ‘ordinary’ than nostalgia-inducing”, clarifies Militaru.
However, cities (especially unusual ones or those we have an emotional connection to) can also trigger nostalgia. Even when cities triggered nostalgia, however, they did not evoke the same warmth. Instead, they often represented base-rate memories: places where many people live, and thus, where many memories are naturally made. But it was the blue places that stood out emotionally, even though they were often farther away geographically.
Why this matters
The researchers didn’t stop at geography — they explored the emotional consequences of remembering a beloved place. In three experiments, people who reflected on a nostalgic place felt more socially connected, more self-confident, more authentic, and more optimistic about life.
In other words, nostalgia seems to bring out the good in us.
“Nostalgia brings places into focus, much like a magnifying glass. Meaningful places tend to be physically far away from us, yet nostalgia brings them back into focus and, in so doing, connects our past self to our present and future self,” Militaru explains.
The findings have practical implications, especially for urban planning and mental health. The study suggests that preserving access to blue spaces — lakes, rivers, beaches — can be an important public health strategy.
“Communities need to be involved in urban planning decisions implemented in their neighbourhoods. Only then can we identify the local landmarks that need to be preserved,” Militaru says.
Journal Reference: Ioana E. Militaru, Wijnand A.P. van Tilburg, Constantine Sedikides, Tim Wildschut, Peter J. Rentfrow, ‘Searching for Ithaca: The geography and psychological benefits of nostalgic places’, Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cresp.2025.100223
