Political and Psychological Features of Russian Citizens’ Perception of Their Country’s Future

The article discusses the results of a political and psychological study on how Russia’s development is perceived by the public. It examines the structural components, functions, and characteristics of the country’s future image. The authors draw conclusions about the most significant parameters for assessing these images of the future. Based on these conclusions, the most typical scenarios for Russia’s development as perceived by Russians are described. The most pronounced trends in political perception include a significant ambiguity in these images, driven by increasing uncertainty, as well as the instability and unpredictability of social processes. The study also highlights the need to develop critical thinking and imagination skills in society, the increasingly limited nature of planning horizons, and the refusal to scale goals. These risks are heightened by the instability of society’s psychological state and its sensitivity to the changing events. The study revealed a differentiation in the country’s images, based on the criterion of assessing reality based on emotional significance and activity. The data reflect the increasing relevance of basic materialistic values, as well as the complexity of society’s construction of long-term development scenarios. In this case, the communicative factor rather exacerbates the problems of perceiving the future. Generational, value, and temporal factors also appear to be significant ones in perceiving the future today.

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