Future-Oriented Thinking: The Creativity Connection

Future-oriented thinking or prospective thinking is the ability to travel mentally toward the future, to imagine or simulate events that may or may not occur in the future (Bubić & Abraham, Review of Psychology, 21, 3–15, 2014). The creativity connection is related to the original meaning of “Creation” that is “the action of causing to exist” or “a coming into being” (Gare, The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible, Palgrave, 2022). This chapter aims at describing the central role of creativity in the creation of future-oriented scenarios. The first section briefly introduces different sets of futures, describes the processes involved in thinking about the future, addresses the “creativity connection” through the methods that are used in future studies and the cognitive processes involved in creative and future-oriented thinking. The second section discusses some applications of future-oriented thinking in which creativity has been used for the long-term common good that could make the planet a better place. The third section addresses the recent use of emergent technologies to promote creative future-oriented thinking. Finally, we conclude by linking future-oriented thinking to transformational creativity, as it supports this type of creativity.