Collective Future Thinking

In this study, we tested whether prior exposure to valenced examples of collective future projections – attributed to an unknown source or a social source – shifts the valence of collective future thinking. Across all experiments, the collective negativity bias persisted and was comparable regardless of the valence or source of primers. This consistency is striking given that collective future projections are unbounded by reality, yet they seem resistant to primers we used.

Dr. Tori Peña discussed some of her work on how people shape each other’s memories and imagination of the future of the United States. She reviewed work she did examining chat-based collaboration (Greeley et al., 2022). She also discussed her work experimentally testing whether people can imagine a more positive future for the future of the United States (Peña & Rajaram, in press).

People are not optimistic about the future of the United States. When reporting their thoughts about the future, people express more worries than excitement, a phenomenon known as the collective negativity bias and widely replicated among people residing in the United States.