Utopianism and Politics: Are There Right-Wing Utopians?

Abstract

Utopianism – the tendency to engage in thought about an ideal form of society – has been shown to motivate social change and collective action. Yet, we know little about where on the political spectrum utopianism is most prevalent. Here we analysed seven datasets collected in the USA and Australia between 2015 and 2023, to examine the relationship between political orientation and utopian thinking. Results showed that in the United States, utopian thinking was somewhat higher at the liberal and conservative ends of the spectrum and lower in the centre. In Australia, utopian thinking was higher on the left of politics, but a relationship similar to that in the USA appeared to be emerging over..