The entangled nature of interdependence. Bistability, irreproducibility and uncertainty

Publication date: Available online 10 December 2016 Source:Journal of Mathematical Psychology Author(s): W.F. Lawless With models focused on individuals in research that often fails to be reproduced, social science has been unable to generalize theory into a mathematical physics of social reality to advance the science of teams. For example, Shannon’s information theory and the social sciences, including economics, assume that individual observation of behavior records the actual behaviors that have occurred, including self-reports of behavior. In the social sciences this phenomenon allows social scientists to assume that self-reported behavior is actual behavior, justifying strictly cognitive models (but if true, self-deceiving behaviors would not exist). Many economists consider interpersonal comparisons meaningless. We claim that this focus on individuals is unsupported by the evidence, including the laboratory games agreeing with religious beliefs that cooperation provides for the best social good. At the heart of these rational, but false models, interdependence is seen as a constraint (information theory) or experimental confound (cognitive models) that must be overcome to confirm models based on individuals. But, we argue, social scientists have come to believe they understand interdependence when they do not. By replacing independent individuals with interdependent ones in quantum-like models, we have found that only a competition among teams establishes social r...
Source: Journal of Mathematical Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research