Functions of Utopia: How Utopian Thinking Motivates Societal Engagement. (May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fernando, Julian W.; Burden, Nicholas; Ferguson, Adam; O'Brien, Léan V.; Judge, Madeline; Kashima, Yoshihisa
• Is Part Of: Personality & social psychology bulletin. Volume 44:Number 5(2018)
• Page Start: 779
• Page End: 792
• Publication Date: 2018-05
• Subjects: utopia -- self-regulation -- social change -- culture; Personality -- Periodicals; Social psychology -- Periodicals; 302
• DOI: 10.1177/0146167217748604
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0146-1672

Abstract

Images of ideal societies, utopias, are all around us; yet, little is known of how utopian visions affect ordinary people's engagement with their societies. As goals for society, utopias may elicit processes of collective self-regulation, in which citizens are critical of, or take action to change, the societies they live in. In three studies, we investigated the psychological function of utopian thinking. In Study 1, measured utopianism was correlated with the activation of three utopian functions: change, critique, and compensation. In Study 2, primed utopian thinking consistently enhanced change and criticism intentions. Study 3 also provided evidence that mental contrasting—first imagining a utopian vision and then mentally contrasting the current society to this vision—underlies the facilitative effect of utopian thinking on societal engagement.