Future Consumer 2027:

Emotions

WGSN ensures the world’s leading

brands create the exact products that
tomorrow’s consumers will buy
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FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

Since the pandemic and the polycrisis that followed, emotion

Our emotions shape who we are, became the central driver of all consumer behaviour. How
connect us with others and define we shop, what we buy and the brands that we choose have
become inextricably linked with the way that we feel.
what it means to be human. For brands, understanding these emotional drivers is
fundamentally important. Your success will be determined by
how your future consumers react to your brand’s narrative,
products and the experiences that you create.

”
In our new flagship forecast, Future Consumer 2027: Emotions,
we offer a roadmap to these key emotions and explain how
you can create the right products for your consumers by
tapping into their thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

Nik Dinning
Vice President of Marketing, WGSN

EMOTIONS WGSN
 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

Introduction This forecast provides a roadmap to future-proof your

business, enabling you to understand exactly how consumers
will be feeling in two years’ time and, importantly, how they will
want to feel.

Know how consumers will Emotions offer a new framework for understanding consumers
and supercharging product innovation, business growth and
behave before they even customer engagement. They are a powerful tool that can be
harnessed to shape how customers react to your brand’s
know it themselves narrative, products and experiences, ultimately influencing
their purchasing decisions and building brand love.

WGSN’s flagship forecast, Future Consumer 2027: Emotions,

identifies six key emotions that will shape consumer behaviour
in 2027. The following pages provide a preview of three of
those emotions, which will be crucial for understanding and
engaging with your future consumers:

◊ Strategic Joy: to combat negativity and reimagine

the world as a more inspiring, inclusive and affirming
place, joy will be essential

◊ Witherwill: defined as “the longing to be free from

responsibility,” it will shape 2027 as people continue
to be overwhelmed amid a polycrisis

◊ Suspicious Optimism: as people grow

apprehensive about the role of technology and AI,
they will be tempering optimism with suspicion

These consumer emotions should be used as an overarching

narrative for developing business strategies and hyper-
targeted product lines across fashion, beauty, food and drink,
interiors, sports and outdoor and consumer tech.

To discover all six consumer emotions set to define 2027,

request a WGSN demo.

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 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

The WGSN
Methodology
1
Our job is to make you and your brand successful.
Observe
2 4
3
The rigour of our proprietary STEPIC™ methodology STEPIC
reinforces the accuracy of our forecasts, currently
Society Synthesise Focus
standing at 93%, helping you de-risk decision-making Technology
and – crucially – keep you in profit. Environment Aesthetic Connection Trading
Politics
We contextualise global research, design directions and Industry
Analytics and Forecast
quantitative and qualitative data to deliver strategic Creativity Data Modelling

forecasts and analytics, which are fundamental to Consumer Insight

5
WGSN Proprietary Data Critical Debate
product development, planning and trading.
Lifestyles
WGSN Experts
Our signature STEPIC™ methodology is the lens
Product Design
through which we observe and synthesise seemingly
disparate factors that converge to become a trend.
This methodology uses data from a range of sources,
Re-evaluate
including shows, social media, retail, searches and Continuous Monitoring
sentiment analysis, to predict trends and help clients
make informed decisions.

This data, combined with the forecast intelligence of

our 250+ experts worldwide, makes WGSN the most
accurate forecasting tool in the world.

EMOTIONS WGSN
 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

This emotional state couples joy with purpose, and it will

Strategic Joy be a reaction to feelings that have dominated the last

few years – prolonged stress, boredom and dysregulation
(an inability to control emotional responses as a result of
feeling too many of them at once).

EMOTIONS WGSN
 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

Strategic Joy

Building on our previous forecasts of Awe for

2024, Imagination for 2025 and Glimmers for
2026, Strategic Joy will emerge in 2027 as the
natural next step, as consumers and businesses
embrace play in pursuit of self-discovery,
connection, inspiration and inclusivity.

Cultivating joy is not only good for personal

health – it’s also good for business health: in
a survey of more than 2,000 Australians and
New Zealanders, almost six in 10 said playful
or humorous brands made them feel better
about a company or organisation, and in the
US, unhappy workers cost firms $1.9tn in lost Play will also help consumers move
productivity in 2023. from a mindset of ‘what is’ to ‘what if?’
and experiment with new boundaries,
In 2027, the power of play will inspire people reimagining the world not only through AI but
to embrace positive habits and mindsets. also KI (kid intelligence, which cherishes the
Expect to see a bigger focus on collective virtues of childlike wonder). Consumers will
effervescence (the shared positive feeling felt also embrace pleasure activism, and they will
at crowd events) and healthier or more mindful turn inward to prioritise their wellbeing and
habits and experiences such as train travel, serenity. Brands have a golden opportunity
which has been linked to greater happiness. to support consumers in these quests.

EMOTIONS WGSN
 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

Strategic Joy

Three key consumer emotions will shape the

in action state of Strategic Joy: feeling dysregulated,
stressed and bored. As global challenges
mount, these feelings will demand evolved
mindsets and imaginative solutions, moving
consumers toward three aspirational
emotions: feeling included in a broader
cultural narrative, feeling serene amid chaos,
and becoming deeply inspired by the world.
These emotional goals will set the tone
for future creative endeavours that are as
strategic as they are joyful.

EMOTIONS WGSN
 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

Witherwill
Witherwill means “the longing to be free from responsibility”
and it will become a key coping mechanism as people
grapple with pressures on multiple levels in 2027.

EMOTIONS WGSN
 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

Witherwill As previously forecast, 2026 will be defined by the great

exhaustion, with workplace and digital stressors creating
a pervasive sense of burnout and overwhelm. Witherwill
– a word coined by John Koenig, author of The Dictionary
of Obscure Sorrows – will be a reaction against this, as
people push back to explore a slower existence with lower
stakes, fewer to-do lists, more meaningful connections
and less loneliness.

While exhaustion hinders our ability to handle future

challenges, Witherwill will be a key tactic to overcome
them, helping people navigate fatigue and find healing,
both individually and collectively. This can already be
seen in emerging escapes designed to help people free
themselves, such as Both Sides, a retreat for men to
escape modern-day stressors and reconnect with their
sense of purpose.

Witherwill is also playing out in the digital arena,

with more people opting out of tech and embracing
‘ping minimalism’ – the act of removing unnecessary
notifications from devices. This quest for less noise and
more digital disconnection is still seen by some as a
radical act of defiance, but it will become increasingly
normalised by 2027, emerging as a demonstration of
self-care that will lead consumers to be more curious and
loving. Some TikTokers have already started leaning into
this sentiment via Billy Joel’s 1977 song Vienna, which has
become a viral Gen Z anthem thanks to its pertinent lyrics
about self-acceptance and slowing down.

In 2027, the pursuit of Witherwill will align with a focus on

dishabituation (breaking away from unhelpful habits) to
help people achieve a return on their energy.

EMOTIONS WGSN
 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

Witherwill

Three core emotional drivers will shape

In action the state of Witherwill: a sense of being
overwhelmed with responsibility; of feeling
lonely; and a growing empathy for others. In
2027, people will find themselves caught in
a delicate balance between personal needs
and collective obligations, and this tension
will give rise to two primary responses:
a retreat into isolation and a desire for
connection. Propelling us forward will be
aspirations of becoming carefree, feeling
curious, and embracing love – both for
ourselves and for those around us.

EMOTIONS WGSN
 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

Suspicious Optimism

Amid seismic technological change,

Suspicious Optimism will be a default
emotional state for many in 2027

EMOTIONS WGSN
 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

Suspicious Optimism
WGSN has been tracking optimism for
years, including Tragic Optimism for 2024
(the search for meaning amid complex
challenges) and Rational Optimism for
2026 (the idea that it makes more sense
to be optimistic than pessimistic in a world
that’s constantly changing). In 2027 many
people will be tempering their optimism for
the future with scepticism and suspicion,
particularly regarding the role of technology,
as we grapple with both the positive and
negative impacts of AI, as well as continuing
threats of divisions and distortions online.

In an age of information and disinformation,

consumers are armed with an arsenal
of inputs that can inspire awe, fear or
disillusionment, and this can be exacerbated
in a world where people consume media
that aligns with their class, age, location or
ideological preferences, resulting in a world
of myriad self-reinforced realities.

As we head into 2027, content creators

will assume a new importance and power
in shaping these realities, whether it be to
curb or fuel suspicions about the future. For
brands, it will be essential to help consumers
make sense of a world in flux so they can
find their way to wisdom, balance and trust.

EMOTIONS WGSN
 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

Suspicious Optimism

The state of Suspicious Optimism will be

in action driven by three key emotions: awe at the
potential of new innovations; fear of unintended
consequences; and disillusionment from past
disappointments and expectations. As 2027
approaches, consumers will navigate complex
relationships with technology, oscillating
between fascination and apprehension. These
drivers will propel us toward aspirational
states of wisdom, balance and trust in our
technological interactions.

EMOTIONS WGSN
 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

Thought Starters

1 How can you integrate play and joy into

your products and internal processes to
improve the health and happiness of your
customers and your business?

2 As people face pressures on multiple

fronts, how can you lighten their load
and help them enjoy a less pressured
life with fewer responsibilities?

3 Technology is transforming our world

at warp speed. How can you build trust
and inspire optimism in its potential to
create a better future for all?

EMOTIONS WGSN
 FUTURE CONSUMER 2027

About WGSN

Trend forecasting solutions for

people ahead of their time

Our foresight helps businesses understand the changes

they need to act on now so they can make the best
products and services for tomorrow.

If you need to know what will fill consumers’ wardrobes,

bathroom shelves, kitchens or even their hands in the
future, WGSN’s proven combination of consumer insight,
data and industry expertise will guide you.

For more than a quarter of a century, we have predicted

the big macro shifts in consumer lifestyle, values and
needs to ensure our clients achieve future product and
commercial success.

Contact us to see how we can

future-proof your business today.
WGSN