Zoe Fowler, University at Albany – The Science of Co-Imagination and Relationships

On this Student Spotlight during University at Albany Week: Imagining a future together can have big benefits for a relationship.

Zoe Fowler, PhD candidate in the Gaesser Lab, explains what brings about this connection.

Zoë Fowler is a cognitive scientist and scholar of imagination. She is a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology at SUNY Albany, researching the intersection of imagination, emotion, morality, and social relationships as part of the Imagination & Cognition Lab. Zoë is also an instructor at Skidmore College, where she teaches courses on imagination as well as clinical psychology. She received her M.A. and B.A. from SUNY Albany. Prior to joining the Imagination & Cognition Lab, Zoë’s research journey began in the Laboratory of Comparative Primate Cognition at Emory National Primate Research Center.

The Science of Co-Imagination and Relationships

Imagination is fundamental to human development and well-being, underlying creative thinking and problem-solving. New research suggests it may also play a key role in supporting closer relationships with others.

From the mundane decisions of what to make for dinner to the consequential choices of where to live, we imagine and feel out possible future events together. Yet previous research has not studied the act of imagination as a co-creative process that supports social connection.

To explore this question, our research team conducted two experimental studies investigating imagination as a collaborative process in which individuals co-create shared representations of future events together — what we’re calling “collaborative” or “co-” imagination.

The first study was in-person with 120 undergraduate students; the second was via Zoom with 124 participants from the general public.

Participants were grouped into pairs and asked to imagine future events in as much detail as possible, either collaboratively, or independently in a separate room. A third group of participants was assigned to engage in general social collaboration, by either playing a game together or describing an event as depicted in a photo.

In both experiments, we used behavioral ratings and natural language processing tools to examine the impact of collaborative imagination.

The results revealed that collaboratively imagining a shared future increased social connection among participants, compared to imagining a shared future independently or collaborating on non-imaginative tasks. Furthermore, collaborative imagination increased participants’ engagement in 
perspective taking (for example, considering their partner’s thoughts and feelings), suggesting that imagination plays an important role in supporting shared understanding in new relationships.

Building on this work, the next step will be to investigate imagination in existing close relationships and study, for example, how the way that couples imagine the future together predicts intimacy, trust and longevity over time.

Our future — the hopes, dreams and obstacles it may bring — is not ours alone to imagine. We actively cocreate with others; and in doing so, become closer and more connected.

Read More:
[Phys] – Psychology researchers find collaborative imagination increases social connection
[The Conversation] – The morality of feeling equal empathy for strangers and family alike