The present research explores the role of collective memory and future thinking in structuring the experience of collective anxiety. We aimed to see whether and how various reconstructions of the collective past inform and influence people’s appraisals of anxiety for their group’s future. To address this question, we conducted an experimental study with two factors. The data was collected in Turkey 1-month before the presidential elections in May 2023. For the future event factor, participants were instructed to imagine one of the two alternative scenarios for the election night in which one or the other candidate wins the election. Next, they wrote about the main issue that they are anxious about for their country’s future. Participants were then assigned to either the collective or personal memory condition. Participants in the collective memory condition remembered an event from the past that they think provides a basis for their collective anxiety, while those in the personal memory group simply remembered an important personal event. After these experimental manipulations participants appraised their anxieties using the cognitive model of anxiety addressing appraisals of harm, severity, and perceived efficacy. Analyses revealed that remembering collective events did influence people’s appraisals of collective anxiety, with people in the collective memory condition having a more intense experience of collective anxiety. This effect, however, was moderated by sociopolitical identity.