You've no doubt noticed it: Products from the past are making a comeback. Coke and Pepsi have recently introduced throwback versions of their soft drinks. Mrs. Butterworth, Strawberry Shortcake, Atari (the list goes on) have all returned. And advertisers like Bumble Bee Tuna are reviving their old jingles.

Marketers of products such as these are pushing nostalgia in the hope that "in times of anxiety (such as economic recessions), reviving feelings about the past will soothe consumers' nerves," say the authors of a new research report.

How might a retro product soothe a frazzled buyer? The researchers set out to find the answer. Particularly, they focused on a human emotion relevant to the age of social media: the need to belong.

In a series of five experiments, they explored whether subjects feeling socially "excluded" demonstrated a preference for nostalgic products. They divided shoppers up to experience an "exclusion condition" (where they were ignored during a group activity), an "inclusion condition" and a "neutral condition." Following the group activity, participants were offered choices of contemporary or retro products.

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