Big Data and Future-Oriented Thought | Phillip Wolff (PI, Mind and Language lab, pwolff [at] emory [dot] edu) & Robert Thorstad (Graduate Student, robert [dot] thorstad [at] emory [dot] edu)

The Wolff Lab has integrated lab-based experiments and big-data methods to understand how people think about the future, and what that means for their behavior. For example, big data techniques have revealed that there are multiple kinds of future thinking that are differentially linked to well-being. For example, some kinds of future thinking are healthy (positive anticipation), and some kinds of future thinking are unhealthy (dread). Furthermore, countries that think of the future as being more similar to the present tend to invest more in infrastructure and have better measures of health and well-being. This pattern is also true of states within the United States, and lab-based studies show the same is true at the individual level. More on that here.