Person's social identity and time perspective as predictors of attitudes toward common past, present, and future
The article analyzes the role of social identity and characteristics of time perspective in the construction of a collective image of future. The results of empirical studies of the relationship of ethnic and territorial identity and temporal perspective with the person's attitude to the past and future of Russia, as well as the attitude of citizens to the future of their city (N = 100; N = 209) are presented. The negative past (ZTPI) is a predictor of negative attitudes to the present and future of Russia. The future (ZTPI) increases the severity of the instrumental attitude to the collective past of Russia. The balanced time perspective supports a positive attitude to the present of the city, while future orientation (ZTPI) and dispositional optimism (LTO) are predictors of a positive assessment of its medium-term future. The ethnic identification is related with a negative assessment of the future of the country. On the contrary, the citizens' positive territorial identity is a predictor of their positive attitudes to the present and future of their city, their belief in the ability to influence its future. The study also found a negative connection between the length of residence in Moscow and a positive evaluation of its present and the belief of respondents that they can influence the future of their city. Promising areas for further research are outlined: identification of group analogues of an individual balanced time perspective in the interaction of collective memory and collective image of the future; the study of the relationship of the time perspective with individual structural and substantive characteristics of the collective image of the future; the study of the relationship between the image of the collective future and person's future positive and negative identities; study of intergenerational transmission of images of possible collective futures