A living research initiative
The Behavioural Atlas maps how people around the world are feeling about the future — and how those feelings are shaping real behaviours, choices, and social patterns.
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Behavioural signals
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Survey respondents
7
Global zones
What is the Behavioural Atlas?
Behavioural research tells us what people do. Futures thinking asks what comes next. The Behavioural Atlas sits at that intersection — collecting signals of how people are actually responding to an uncertain world.
From avoidance to innovation, from anxiety to hope — the Atlas builds a living picture of the emotional and behavioural landscape of our times, zone by zone, feeling by feeling.
Get involved
Share how the future feels to you in about 30 seconds — anonymously, right inside the Atlas. Pick a feeling, rate your sense of agency, and instantly see your personal Feeling × Agency state with research-based tips. Your response is reviewed and added to the map after a short processing period — not instantly.
Pin an observed real-world behaviour to the map. Tag its behavioural mechanic, rate its intensity, and anchor it to a location. Your signal goes through a short review before appearing on the Atlas. You can also tap anywhere on the map to start a contribution.
Drop a quick observation on the live Padlet board. Comment, build on others' posts, and be part of the collective sensemaking. No account required.
Coverage
1 signals · 5 survey respondents
What the data tells us
July was the second full month of collection since the Atlas launched on 20 May, and while the numbers are still small, the early picture is already textured. Five survey responses came in from four of our seven global zones, joined by one behavioural signal. Curiosity and Uncertainty tied as the dominant feelings — a pairing that captures the dual posture of the moment: open to what's emerging, but unsure what to make of it.
Signal from the signals
The single signal submitted this month was tagged Innovation — a contributor noting 'big new things emerging' in Europe and tagging the future as Curious. One data point is not a trend, but it sets a tone: the Atlas's first July entry is an act of noticing possibility rather than retreat.
Signal from the survey
A key development this month is the introduction of named Feeling × Agency states. Rather than reading emotion and perceived capacity separately, the Atlas now maps their intersection into a single descriptive state. July's five respondents spanned five distinct states — from Self-directed exploration (Curious + Very able) and Supported exploration (Curious + Somewhat able), through Mobilising energy (Energised + Somewhat able), to Orientation-seeking (Uncertain + Not sure) and Waiting under strain (Uncertain + Not very able). Even at this scale, the spread is meaningful: the same month holds high-agency curiosity and uncertain drift side by side, a reminder that 'how the future feels' cannot be read apart from 'how able you feel to shape it.'
Where it's coming from
Responses arrived from Turkey, Canada, the United Kingdom, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Australia — touching the Middle East, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania. Notably, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines marks the Atlas's first Caribbean voice. Africa, South Asia, and East Asia remain unrepresented this month — an open and important gap as the project grows.
One thing to watch
Country profiles are now live on the Atlas. Click any amber flag marker on the map to explore a country's Hofstede cultural dimensions, GDP and population data, historical context, and major news outlets — each verified by the IBF Editorial Team. The profiles bring structural and cultural context alongside the lived emotional data, so signals can be read against the conditions that shape them. We'll be watching how this layer changes the way contributors interpret what they see.
Feelings this month
Combined signals + survey responses
Behavioural mechanics
Responses by zone
The researcher
Behavioural Futurist · Founder, Institute for Behavioural Futures
Award-winning pracademic developing tools and methods to combine behavioural science with futures thinking. The Behavioural Atlas is one of those tools — a living instrument for mapping how collective emotions shape the futures we're moving into.
behaviouralfutures.comA log of new features, improvements, data milestones, and posts.
The Atlas now has a built-in Quick Contribute flow — share how the future feels to you or pin an observed behavioural signal without leaving the map. Tap anywhere on the map to start, pick a feeling, rate your agency, and instantly see your personal Feeling × Agency state with research-based tips. Every response goes through a short review period before it appears on the map — your dot will show up in your country after it's been reviewed by the research team.
We've added rich country intelligence profiles to the Behavioural Atlas. Click any amber flag marker on the map to explore a country's Hofstede cultural dimensions, GDP and population data, historical context, major news outlets, and key facts — all drawn from verified sources including Hofstede Insights, the World Bank, and the CIA World Factbook. Profiles also surface live behavioural mechanics from Atlas signals in each region and survey responses from that country. We've seeded profiles for every country with survey submissions so far, with more on the way.
A new collapsible Category Glossary on the Dashboard explains all 8 future feelings, 7 behavioural mechanics, and 5 agency levels. Hover any feeling or agency label in the charts for an instant definition tooltip.
The Feeling × Agency Matrix now includes a toggleable legend explaining how to read the matrix, per-row volume bars, hover highlighting on cells, and a colour-scale footnote — making the framework easier to interpret at a glance.
The Trends page now includes a monthly overview PDF export — download a formatted report of feelings, mechanics, and agency trends for any selected month.
A new 'Monthly Overviews' tab in the Trends section lets you browse month-by-month breakdowns of feelings, behavioural mechanics, and survey agency data.
Admins can now export all signal statistics and agency trends as a CSV file directly from the Dashboard tab on the Atlas.
The Survey Dashboard now features a Feeling × Agency Matrix, visualising the intersection of emotional orientation and perceived agency across all respondents.
Clicking an existing signal pin on the Atlas map now opens the signal profile without triggering the 'Add Signal' form — improving navigation clarity.
Survey respondents now appear as small coloured dots on the Atlas map, placed by country. Their feeling is encoded in colour so you can see the emotional geography at a glance.
The Behavioural Atlas officially launched — a living map of how people around the world are feeling about the future and how those feelings are shaping real-world behaviours.
Join contributors from around the world in mapping the emotional landscape of our collective future.
Open the Atlas