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Utopian thinking is an emerging area of research in social psychology that can help us understand attitudes about, and motivation for, social change. In this presentation I will present an overview of the perspective that has informed my colleagues and my recent research in this area. This will include consideration of what utopian thinking is/consists of, and three facets of utopian thinking informed by previous theoretical perspectives: 1) function (i.e., how utopian thinking affects motivation); 2) content (i.e., what people think about when they imagine an ideal for society); and 3) utopianism (i.e., individual differences in the tendency to engage in utopian thinking). I will also discuss our research findings integrating utopian thinking with existing social psychological constructs such as self-regulation, mental contrasting and collective action.

Experiencing anger about the current status quo (a negative present) motivates collective action. But how might other temporal comparisons (e.g., thinking about a positive future or positive past) and the unique emotions they elicit influence people’s willingness to act? Although action is often underpinned by anger about the present, no work has systematically examined whether other temporal comparisons influence action via different affective appraisals (e.g., a hopeful vision of how things could be in the future, nostalgia for how things were in the past). In the present research, we test whether these different time referents elicit unique emotions that differentially motivate action. Across two studies (N = 1347), participants were asked to think about and describe a negative, positive, or neutral past, present, or future regarding plastic pollution. They then completed measures assessing emotions (e.g., hope, anger), group consciousness (a latent variable comprising identification, group efficacy, moral convictions, and (lower) system justification), and action intentions. Results revealed countervailing effects. Thinking about a positive (vs negative or neutral) future enhanced hope, which predicted stronger action intentions via group consciousness. However, thinking about a positive (vs negative or neutral) timepoint simultaneously decreased anger, which predicted lower action intentions via diminished group consciousness. Thus, alternative temporal comparisons (particularly those involving a positive future) influence action. However, this influence is not wholly positive: while imaging an ideal future can motivate action to actualize this reality, it also demotivates action by attenuating anger and a desire to agitate for change.

Xtopias are interventions that facilitate people’s mental and emotional access to different possible futures. They consist of extreme ideas with utopian, dystopian and ambivalent aspects, which are combined with a suitable format to address and actively involve specific target groups. The aim of Xtopian interventions is to engage people in the support of societal transformations to a more sustainable future.