Measuring the Image of the Russia’s Future Among Russian Youth: Cognitive Science and Cybermetrics for the Political Study

Abstract

The article presents methodological problems of studying the image of the future of the country among Youth. The unsuitability of the mono-design of empirical analysis, which is limited to the traditional survey method for measuring the image of the future of the state among younger generation, is substantiated. The heuristics of instrumental and projective cognitive science and its possibilities in compensating for the shortcomings of traditional sociology are analyzed. The principles of verification of cognitive science data by methods of automated socio-media analysis of representation in the digital space of the image of the future of Russia are considered. The potential of combining cognitive and psychosemantic methods: eye tracking, polygraphology, cardiometry (instrumental cognitivistics) and associative and sand modeling (projective cognitivistics) in the identification of integration images reflecting in the minds of Russian youth symbols of the positive future of Russia is investigated. The results of the experiment are analyzed, which made it possible to establish visual images associated by Russian youth with the archetypes of “Consent”, “Trust” and “Pride” as the basis for a positive perception by young people of the image of the future of the Russian. Federation. The heuristics of combining the traditional survey with the methods of instrumental and projective cognitive science in clustering young people according to the criteria of activity, awareness of responsibility for their fate and the future of their country, self-generation of goals, demonstration of readiness to achieve them, willingness to negotiate with partners, opponents, self-organization and skills to involve other people in the implementation of their plans are shown. The possibilities of validating the data of projective cognitive science by means of automated social media analysis are considered. The possibilities of scaling the semantic core of the rhetoric of young people — representatives of various strategies for perceiving the image of the future of Russia on the information flows of social media on the Runet are revealed. In conclusion, the general conclusions on the implementation of the methodology and methodology of projective and instrumental cognitive science in the study of the image of the future of the country in the minds of Russian youth are presented. Monitoring the representation of the future of the Russian Federation in the minds of the younger generation can become a basis for practical recommendations to authorities, relevant ministries and state structures on the formation of a positive image of the future of the Russian Federation among young Russians.