Despite extensive research on the functions of imagination, existing work has primarily studied this as an individual process. Yet we can imagine the future together, co-creating hypothetical shared experiences through collaborative imagination (co-imagination). We find that co-imagination shapes the phenomenology of future events, enhancing scene vividness and coherence. Additionally, natural language processing analyses reveal that co-imagination facilitates the creation of shared future event representations with similar affective qualities across dyad partners. We discuss what this novel framework reveals about the cognitive structure of imagination and consider real-world applications of this research for memory, group polarization, and collective cognition.

Do personal experiences and identity influence perceptions of the national future? In this study, participants indicated how positive/negative they expected the future of their county to be in the next 10-20 years, how central their country was to their identity, and how often they have experienced events in which they felt as though they were interacting with or on behalf of their country. Personal experiences with one’s country were associated with expectations of a more positive future, and this association was mediated by identification with country. Implications for collective cognition and action will be discussed.

Schematic theories about change across time can scaffold the construction of mental representations of the collective past and collective futures. In a set of data collected in Israel both immediately after the start of the war in Gaza and after the signing of a cease fire, we examine the ethos of conflict (Bar-Tal, 2013) as a framework of meaning shaping how Israelis think about their country’s past and future. We demonstrate how this value-laden framework shapes 1.) implicit temporal trajectories as indicated by cognitive availability, 2.) temporal horizons of representations and 3.) level of construal across different temporal distances.

This research examines the effect of individual and collective agency on temporal construal when thinking about the future climate. Across 3 studies, participants simulated future temporal intervals to determine if the degree of perceived agency influences construal of proximity, valence, and quantity of events. This work demonstrates that perceived agency enhances the finding that the near climate future is perceived as negative and the distant future as positive. Results indicate a valence dissociation of future events; more positive (less feasible) events are temporally oriented in the distant future; more negative (more feasible) negative events are in the near future.

The last few years have seen increased interest in collective future thinking, which builds on previous work on episodic future thinking. Several of panel papers focus on how individuals imagine their nation’s future, one takes a transnational turn and examines individual’s imagining climate’s future, and finally, one explores the social benefits of collaborative construction of the future. Collectively, they show how factors affecting collective future thinking are shaped by social identity, an ethos of conflict, and beliefs about group agencies. Discussion will focus on how the results underscore the way collective future thinking differs from episodic future thinking.