In an era where vision boards, affirmations, and mindfulness are ubiquitous, the idea that your thoughts have the power to manifest your goals isn’t novel. But what if couples, friends, teammates, co-workers, communities, nations – even a world of citizens collaboratively imagining the same outcome is so powerful that it not only strengthens social bonds but also helps shape the future of humanity and planet Earth? To learn more, we spoke with scientists about their new research on collaborative imagination.

The ubiquitousness of human imagination

“The human capacity for imagination and its value to our society has been the subject of intrigue among artists and philosophers for centuries. But only recently has it captured the attention of the cognitive science community. Cognitive science has put an emphasis on the benefits of an ability to imagine the future,” says Brendan O’Connor, an associate professor of psychology at the University at Albany, whose paper on collaborative imagination was just published in PNAS in June.

He is the Lab Director of the Imagination & Cognition Lab. The lab is particularly interested in the role of imagination in social and moral cognition, with the goal of fostering a more resilient, cooperative, and future-minded society. 

“Collaborative imagination is a ubiquitous part of human relationships. Whether it’s romantic, family members, friends, or community members, we frequently are imagining what the future could look like,” says O’Connor.

The power of imagining together: Increased social connection

During the introductory phase of the published study, participants were assigned to pairs and introduced to each other, where “people got to know one another just for a few minutes,” says O’Connor. “They spent the next hour or so imagining future events together, future events that they will both plausibly be involved in or could plausibly be involved in. And they’re trying to imagine these events in as much detail as possible.”

Variations include the pair imagining the same events independently in a separate room. Questions were asked afterward to measure social connection, such as: How much do you like this person? How much do you value this person? How connected do you feel to them? How satisfied are you interacting with them?

“We found that co-imagining a shared future with a novel partner cultivates or increases feelings of social connection to a greater degree than individually imagining a shared future or engaging in a collaborative or shared non-imaginative task,” says O’Connor.

Heightened vividness, pro-social actions and pro-social bonds

“I was particularly focused on the connection between imagination and empathy and imagination and altruism, social emotions and pro-social actions,” says O’Connor, adding that co-imagination may also provide insight into combating loneliness and social disconnection.

“We know that imagination can help us value and empathize with others more,” says O’Connor, referencing his research showing that individuals who visualize helping someone in need are associated with a greater willingness to actually help others.

“People report the imagination that comes from co-imagining as more vivid. And they engaged in more mentalizing, more perspective taking,” says O’Connor. “They were more likely to consider the thoughts and feelings of the other person when they were imagining the future together.”

Dating and relationships: The couple that imagines together

Many a novel features a wistful, hopeful, dreamy protagonist fantasizing about life with the object of their affection. Whereas O’Connor’s research focused on co-imagination and new partners, other studies suggest imagining future events involving someone you’re already close to may also foster feelings of warmth and love. 

Let’s say you’re planning a trip together. “It’s important that both individuals take turns imagining the shared future event. That it’s not just one person imagining it,” says O’Connor. Sure, a single individual might plan a trip or surprise trip, “But in terms of increasing and fostering feelings of connection, the data would suggest that going back and forth and both people contributing to the imagined event is probably one of the key aspects.” 

“That means talking about it at dinner or wherever you are,” says O’Connor. 

Imagine it, be it?

“We know from earlier work that vividness of the imagery can increase the perceived likelihood that the event will happen and there will be behavioral follow-through,” says O’Connor.

“Once you have imagined what the feature could look like, and once you have that image in your mind, then it becomes perceived as more likely or more possible because it’s almost as if the imagination is providing information of evidence of possibility,” says O’Connor. “I don’t think it’s any mistake that, metaphorically, you’ll sometimes hear, ‘I could never imagine that’. And that’s used for things that people think are impossible.”

Memories of the future

“There’s a similar cognitive and neural basis when people remember the past, and they imagine the future,” says O’Connor, referring to them as intimately linked systems. 

O’Connor emphasizes that shared past events facilitate identity and are important to close relationships. For example, pouring over old memories, such as scrapbooking, strengthens social ties and makes you feel more strongly bonded with your romantic partner. 

“In cases where there’s a shared history of conflict or violence, remembering those highly negative shared experiences might backfire in that they may not be the most productive way to facilitate identity or connection.”

Another significant finding is that you can take the narratives that subjects imagined and show narrative similarity. “This, to me, has potentially big implications because we’re showing a mechanism by which people can synchronize representations of future events.”

Imagine humanity positively changed

Collective future thinking is the act of an individual imagining the collective future of the group or sociopolitical context in which they are embedded, such as one’s nation or city. 

Some studies show that people imagine more positive than negative events in their personal future but more negative than positive events in the collective future. The higher that people reported their affinity to the larger group, the more positively they imagine the collective future. 

 So, engaging in collaborative imagination through interpersonal interactions may give rise to collectively shared beliefs about a society’s future, influencing how people make present-moment decisions that have important community and larger social consequences. Imagination may help create common shared experiences even in the absence of past interactions and shared history. 

“You imagine the future with one person. That person then goes and imagines related future events with another person,” says O’Connor. “When you do that enough times across a social network, that could leap to synchronizing and creating emergent collective beliefs or representations about the future in a culture or network.”

O’Connor’s study focused on collaboratively imagining positive events to amplify a pro-social effect. It did not explore dystopian scenarios that could result from the potential dark side of collaborative imagination. 

Sometimes, we think of imagination as a purely whimsical, inconsequential activity or capacity, “but it seems like imagination is fundamental to human relationships,” says O’Connor. Research and numerous events, such as the United Nations Summit of the Future, reflect this.

Mankind’s most significant achievements are often not the result of individual brilliance alone but our united capacity to envision, strive for and achieve a better tomorrow. Perhaps people will think twice before binging on dystopian television shows and movies and instead focus on collaboratively imagining a sustainable future where everyone has healthcare, no one goes hungry or homeless, technology benefits mankind, and peace and happiness reign. Oh, and on that first date, even if collaboratively imagining a future trip to Costa Rica doesn’t magically manifest it, imagining it together may bond you enough to say yes to date number two.