12 reasons why people are obsessed with nostalgia

Objectively speaking, the teens and 20s are not necessarily the happiest time of life. Researchers showed a number of years ago that the lowest percentage of people rating themselves as "very happy" was lowest among the 18-27 year old age group (Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998). Why, then do so many people think back on these years with such fond memories? It turns out that the reminiscence bump applies particularly to happy memories (Gluck & Bluck, 2007).