Statistical Structures Underlying Quantum Mechanics and Social Science

2003/07/30 by Ron Wright, Wright, Ron
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0307234

Talk presented at QS2002 Vienna, July 2002

arxiv created 2003/07/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01

Abstract

Common observations of the unpredictability of human behavior and the influence of one question on the answer to another suggest social science experiments are probabilistic and may be mutually incompatible with one another, characteristics attributed to quantum mechanics (as distinguished from classical mechanics). This paper examines this superficial similarity in depth using the Foulis-Randall Operational Statistics language. In contradistinction to physics, social science deals with complex, open systems for which the set of possible experiments is unknowable and outcome interference is a graded phenomenon resulting from the ways the human brain processes information. It is concluded that social science is, in some ways, "less classical" than quantum mechanics, but that generalized "quantum" structures may provide appropriate descriptions of social science experiments. Specific challenges to extending "quantum" structures to social science are identified.

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