SHARING FUTURES
A RESEARCH-BASED PROGRAM
The mental health of young adults is declining. Uncertainties about the future, including climate change, are a crucial concern for the younger generation.
Sharing FutureS is a research-based method that uses the shared experience of narratives (books, movies, tv series, video games, and social media storytelling) to enhance mental health and positive coping strategies in response to young adults’ main hopes and worries for their future.
This project emerged from multiple recent calls for actions that are urging researchers to investigate how to target the global mental health emergency in the young adult demographic, particularly in terms of a widespread hopelessness for the future and emotional distress due to the climate crisis.
On this website you will find resources and information on the first edition of the program – which took place in 2024 in Basel (CH) – and on the next steps of the project.
This project has received funding by the BRIDGE Proof of Concept grant (Swiss National Science Foundation and Innosuisse, n. 222419).
The research pillars of Sharing FutureS are rooted in the Empirical Study of Literature and Narratives, a growing interdisciplinary research field that brings together scholars in literary studies, psychology, neuroscience and digital humanities to investigate the underlying mechanisms of narrative experiences and their effects.
The Sharing FutureS method was implemented for the first time in the form of a 6-weeks intervention program that took place in Basel between October and November 2024. The program focused on two themes: climate change (using “climate narratives”) and young adults’ main hopes and worries for their future (using “future narratives”). A total of 26 young adults from 18 to 24 years old participated in the program in four groups, of which two attended the program in German and two in English.
Our results show that the program had significant beneficial effects for young adults’ wellbeing, social connectedness, climate emotions, and pro environmental behaviors.
The summary report on the results of the project and on the upcoming societal applications of the method is available under this link.
