The big drivers of the One Life trend are women as consumers, professionals, and mothers. They are moving beyond the current equation of being everything to everybody, at work and at home. Surveys consistently show that women in two-income families still do the majority of the work, and at work it is the female values of listening and responding that are increasingly the public face of brands, and the internal ethos of companies.

In domestic life the MAP Report reveals a resurrection of the ‘cocooning’ trend but this time in the form of ‘belief shelters’ where the home becomes a ‘sanctuary’ rather than an expression of aspiration, and advertisers begin to feed a growing sense of the ‘spiritual’. For younger men who don’t have space for spirituality but are genetically disposed to discovering their ‘inner den’, the belief shelter will take the form of ‘macho minimalism’, a spartan living space devoid of everything except widescreen TV, games console and minibar.

In the wider culture we will see the growth of the ‘niche celebrity’, the celebrity who deploys their celebrity capital in areas the consumer will trust. While trust has been a dominant issue in politics and the corporate world for the last few years, trust will now be a major factor in the consumer world, and the big winners will be megabrands and microbrands, as consumers seek out the security of stability or the personal touch provide by small companies.

A by product of this will be a growth in imagery conveying ‘leadership’ as people seek out ‘guru Joes’, guides who will actually look a little bit like ourselves. As the report reveals, this vision of the heroic will often be packaged up in iconic and symbolic imagery that taps into deep-rooted myth. A big driver of One Life is the powerful boomer generation, whose increasing sense of mortality will feed into the wider culture the idea that life is not a rehearsal.

And we will see a revolution in advertising where the taboo of picturing the ‘loner’, the ‘singleton’, will be replaced by imagery supporting the values of ‘singleness’ and solo chic.

Ultimately the One Life trend is about focusing on the individual. However unlike the ‘me decade’ of the a ’70s, the ‘greed decade’ of the ’80s and the ‘lifestyle decade’ of the ’90s, the One Life consumer is constantly reminded that consumption comes with a price. Hence the emergence of the ‘confessional consumer’.

These consumers are aware of environmental issues, buy organic, recycle but also drive 4x4s, make the most of trips away on cheap airlines and still just about enjoy the pleasure of upgrade culture. Confessional consumption is conspicuous consumption with added guilt. It’s the psychology of consumers who will open up to friends about their ecological ‘no noes’. They are ‘piecegreen’ consumers who pick and choose their environmental moments.

The desire for a sense of One Life is a response to anxiety. Consumers are basically still spending, economies are growing, but as analysis of top keyword searches on the Getty Images Web site reveals, what they want is control over their own destiny. They don’t want to juggle balls, they want to start pitching them. The era of multitasking is out and the age of monotasking is in. They want to hit ‘pause’ on the attention economy.

In advertising imagery, in products, in product packaging, in the wider culture at large, anything that simplifies the lives of consumers and enhances a sense of control will push the right emotional buttons.

For more information on the Getty Images MAP Report: One Life, contact Rebecca Swift at edit@gettyimages.com.