About
Mapping how the future feels
The Behavioural Atlas is a living, crowdsourced research platform that maps how people around the world are feeling about the future — and how those feelings are shaping real behaviour.
Kristiina Paju
Behavioural Futurist · Founder, Institute for Behavioural Futures
The Behavioural Atlas sits at the intersection of behavioural science and futures thinking. It collects two kinds of signals: Future Feelings — how individuals emotionally orient toward what's coming, from hope to anxiety to resignation — and Future Signals — observed behaviours that reveal how people are actually responding to an uncertain world, from avoidance and adaptation to resistance and innovation.
It is built for researchers, policymakers, designers, and curious citizens who want to look beyond headline forecasts and see the emotional and behavioural landscape of our times — zone by zone, feeling by feeling. Every contribution is anonymous and reviewed by the editorial team before it appears on the map, so the Atlas remains a trusted, human-curated instrument rather than a raw feed.
The Atlas is an independent academic research initiative by the Institute for Behavioural Futures , founded and led by Kristiina Paju — an award-winning pracademic developing tools and methods that combine behavioural science with futures thinking. It does not predict the future. It maps how futures are emotionally carried in the present, surfacing the feelings, tensions, and behavioural patterns that shape what comes next before they appear in official data.
An ethical research project
The Behavioural Atlas is a non-commercial, not-for-profit academic research initiative. It exists for collective sensemaking — helping researchers, policymakers, and citizens understand how people are emotionally and behaviourally responding to an uncertain future.
- Voluntary and anonymous. Contributions are given freely, with no name, email, or account required, and are never sold or shared commercially.
- Do no harm. The Atlas is designed to surface patterns, not individuals. No contribution is used to target, profile, or manipulate any person or group.
- For sensemaking, not prediction. Findings are exploratory and intended to support deeper research, public engagement, and futures practice — not to forecast or prescribe.
- Human-curated. Every contribution is reviewed by the editorial team before publication to protect contributors and uphold research integrity.
A connected project
Atlas to Action Cards
A separate companion tool building on the Atlas's Feeling × Agency states. Where the Atlas maps how the future feels and how able people feel to act, the Action Cards turn each emotional–agency combination into a practical prompt for futures work — helping people move from sensing to responding. Coming soon.