Philosophy
Statistics does have a significant role in physics but I would exercise caution when applying statistical models to actual human behavior. Profiling can be incorrect.
It seems a little strange for statistical physicists to consider questions of morality in behavior. However, that is is just what a study at ETH in Zurich, Switzeralnd, is doing. Led by Dirk Helbing, the study used game theory to consider how moral behavior arises from interactions with neighbors. Instead of moral behavior developing from an individual's interactions with society as a whole, Helbing's group discovered that there is a good chance that interactions with the individuals nearest to a person lead to the development of moral behavior.
The physicists considered different behaviors in society, including those who cooperate with the system, enforcers that punish those who aren't cooperating (moralists), free riders who ignore the common good, and even "immoral" free riders who punish other free riders. In order to set up the analysis, the physicists created a square lattice of tens of thousands of points, representing individuals. There were four possible strategies that each point could adopt: cooperate without punishing free riders; cooperate and enforce cooperation through punishment; take advantage of a free ride, but let others alone; or take advantage of a free ride and punish others in non-cooperation.
Physics World reports on the process followed by the computer simulation to determine the evolution of moral behavior:
Initially, the four strategies are distributed randomly among individuals and the system evolves to find out which behaviour wins in the long run.
This evolution is influenced by three variables - the fines that penalize free riders; the cost of administering punishment; and the "synergy factor", which stipulates how much the sum of individual contributions is enhanced by collective action.
The computer program picks an individual at random and calculates how much it stands to gain relative to its four nearest neighbours, given the strategies employed by each neighbour. The exercise is then repeated for the neighbours themselves. The strategy employed by each individual was then modified in light of the success of their neighbours, so that individuals could imitate those who performed better than themselves.
The scientists ran the simulation for 10 million iterations, discovering, unsurprisingly, that if the punishment wasn't sufficiently costly to individuals, eventually everyone became a free rider -- simply looking out for individual advantage. But the physicists also noticed something else: Interactions with neighbors in situations where punishment was adequate led to imitation of better performance, and created clusters of cooperation and moralist behavior, even when surrounded by free riders. Close interaction on a smaller, more individual scale, appears to have a larger bearing moral development than more distant interactions on a wider, societal scale.
Now, with this game theory simulation showing that moral behavior evolves from individual interactions, Helbing and his team are building a lab that might be able to test how the theory might work with actual people. They want 36 test subjects who can interact, and help determine how cooperative and moral behaviors arise, and whether people behave as the statistical physics say they will.
- Frans De Waal - Moral Behavior In Animals
As you probably know, one of the most popular arguments for the existence of God is known as the moral argument. There are variations on the theme, but one of the general ideas is that the human moral sense cannot be successfully explained by mindless...
- The Prisoner's Dilemma
One of the interesting aspects of social interactions is that our interests are not always aligned with those of other agents, and when the result of an interaction is a function of your choice and that of someone else whose motives may be different from...
- Still Trying To Predict Human Behavior
Abstract... The phrase ‘folk psychology’ refers to the ordinary psychology we use to understand each other and ourselves. Although folk psychology may initially seem to be a rather simple sort of thing, it can actually be surprisingly difficult...
- Those Pesky "moral Dilemmas"
"Are we more -- or less -- moral than we think?" February 22nd, 2011 PhysOrg.com If asked whether we'd steal, most of us would say no. Would we try to save a drowning person? That depends—perhaps on our fear of big waves. Much research has explored...
- Violence And Micromanagement Of The Human Psyche
"There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom,...
Philosophy
Statistics and human morality
Statistics does have a significant role in physics but I would exercise caution when applying statistical models to actual human behavior. Profiling can be incorrect.
"Statistical Physics Offers Insight Into Moral Behavior"
by
Miranda Marquit
May 6th, 2010
PhysOrg.com
by
Miranda Marquit
May 6th, 2010
PhysOrg.com
It seems a little strange for statistical physicists to consider questions of morality in behavior. However, that is is just what a study at ETH in Zurich, Switzeralnd, is doing. Led by Dirk Helbing, the study used game theory to consider how moral behavior arises from interactions with neighbors. Instead of moral behavior developing from an individual's interactions with society as a whole, Helbing's group discovered that there is a good chance that interactions with the individuals nearest to a person lead to the development of moral behavior.
The physicists considered different behaviors in society, including those who cooperate with the system, enforcers that punish those who aren't cooperating (moralists), free riders who ignore the common good, and even "immoral" free riders who punish other free riders. In order to set up the analysis, the physicists created a square lattice of tens of thousands of points, representing individuals. There were four possible strategies that each point could adopt: cooperate without punishing free riders; cooperate and enforce cooperation through punishment; take advantage of a free ride, but let others alone; or take advantage of a free ride and punish others in non-cooperation.
Physics World reports on the process followed by the computer simulation to determine the evolution of moral behavior:
Initially, the four strategies are distributed randomly among individuals and the system evolves to find out which behaviour wins in the long run.
This evolution is influenced by three variables - the fines that penalize free riders; the cost of administering punishment; and the "synergy factor", which stipulates how much the sum of individual contributions is enhanced by collective action.
The computer program picks an individual at random and calculates how much it stands to gain relative to its four nearest neighbours, given the strategies employed by each neighbour. The exercise is then repeated for the neighbours themselves. The strategy employed by each individual was then modified in light of the success of their neighbours, so that individuals could imitate those who performed better than themselves.
The scientists ran the simulation for 10 million iterations, discovering, unsurprisingly, that if the punishment wasn't sufficiently costly to individuals, eventually everyone became a free rider -- simply looking out for individual advantage. But the physicists also noticed something else: Interactions with neighbors in situations where punishment was adequate led to imitation of better performance, and created clusters of cooperation and moralist behavior, even when surrounded by free riders. Close interaction on a smaller, more individual scale, appears to have a larger bearing moral development than more distant interactions on a wider, societal scale.
Now, with this game theory simulation showing that moral behavior evolves from individual interactions, Helbing and his team are building a lab that might be able to test how the theory might work with actual people. They want 36 test subjects who can interact, and help determine how cooperative and moral behaviors arise, and whether people behave as the statistical physics say they will.
- Frans De Waal - Moral Behavior In Animals
As you probably know, one of the most popular arguments for the existence of God is known as the moral argument. There are variations on the theme, but one of the general ideas is that the human moral sense cannot be successfully explained by mindless...
- The Prisoner's Dilemma
One of the interesting aspects of social interactions is that our interests are not always aligned with those of other agents, and when the result of an interaction is a function of your choice and that of someone else whose motives may be different from...
- Still Trying To Predict Human Behavior
Abstract... The phrase ‘folk psychology’ refers to the ordinary psychology we use to understand each other and ourselves. Although folk psychology may initially seem to be a rather simple sort of thing, it can actually be surprisingly difficult...
- Those Pesky "moral Dilemmas"
"Are we more -- or less -- moral than we think?" February 22nd, 2011 PhysOrg.com If asked whether we'd steal, most of us would say no. Would we try to save a drowning person? That depends—perhaps on our fear of big waves. Much research has explored...
- Violence And Micromanagement Of The Human Psyche
"There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom,...