Beyond Disinformation: Future Imaginaries as Cognitive Stability Architectures

<div> Contemporary research on disinformation and influence has increasingly shifted from content-centric to state-based models of cognition. These models demonstrate that belief formation and rigidity depend strongly on affective and executive conditions rather than on informational accuracy alone. </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> However, existing frameworks remain incomplete. While they identify mechanisms of destabilization and outline structural countermeasures, they do not sufficiently address the cultural layer through which cognitive stability is socially reproduced and maintained. </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> This paper introduces future imaginaries as a class of cultural structures that function as cognitive stability architectures. Unlike ideological systems, which stabilize cognition through normative closure and identity binding, future imaginaries provide orientation, coherence, and anticipatory structure without suppressing epistemic flexibility. </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> The availability, or absence, of such imaginaries plays a critical role in determining whether societies under stress shift toward ideological rigidity or maintain adaptive cognitive openness. Rather than treating narratives as secondary cultural artifacts, this framework positions them as functional components of large-scale cognitive regulation rather than secondary cultural artifacts. </div>