中国物理B ›› 2014, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (7): 78902-078902.doi: 10.1088/1674-1056/23/7/078902

所属专题: TOPICAL REVIEW — Statistical Physics and Complex Systems

• TOPICAL REVIEW—Statistical Physics and Complex Systems • 上一篇    下一篇

Statistical physics of human beings in games:Controlled experiments

梁源a b, 黄吉平b   

  1. a Department of Applied Physics, College of Science, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China;
    b Department of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
  • 收稿日期:2014-01-26 修回日期:2014-02-20 出版日期:2014-07-15 发布日期:2014-07-15
  • 基金资助:
    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11075035 and 11222544), the Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation, China (Grant No. 131008), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, China (Grant No. NCET-12-0121), the Shanghai Rising-Star Program, China (Grant No. 12QA1400200), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China.

Statistical physics of human beings in games:Controlled experiments

Liang Yuan (梁源)a b, Huang Ji-Ping (黄吉平)b   

  1. a Department of Applied Physics, College of Science, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China;
    b Department of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
  • Received:2014-01-26 Revised:2014-02-20 Online:2014-07-15 Published:2014-07-15
  • Contact: Huang Ji-Ping E-mail:jphuang@fudan.edu.cn
  • About author:89.65.Gh; 05.90.+m; 89.75.-k; 05.65.+b
  • Supported by:
    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11075035 and 11222544), the Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation, China (Grant No. 131008), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, China (Grant No. NCET-12-0121), the Shanghai Rising-Star Program, China (Grant No. 12QA1400200), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China.

摘要: It is important to know whether the laws or phenomena in statistical physics for natural systems with non-adaptive agents still hold for social human systems with adaptive agents, because this implies whether it is possible to study or understand social human systems by using statistical physics originating from natural systems. For this purpose, we review the role of human adaptability in four kinds of specific human behaviors, namely, normal behavior, herd behavior, contrarian behavior, and hedge behavior. The approach is based on controlled experiments in the framework of market-directed resource-allocation games. The role of the controlled experiments could be at least two-fold: adopting the real human decision-making process so that the system under consideration could reflect the performance of genuine human beings; making it possible to obtain macroscopic physical properties of a human system by tuning a particular factor of the system, thus directly revealing cause and effect. As a result, both computer simulations and theoretical analyses help to show a few counterparts of some laws or phenomena in statistical physics for social human systems: two-phase phenomena or phase transitions, entropy-related phenomena, and a non-equilibrium steady state. This review highlights the role of human adaptability in these counterparts, and makes it possible to study or understand some particular social human systems by means of statistical physics coming from natural systems.

关键词: experimental econophysics, computer-aided controlled experiment, phase transition, entropy-like quantity

Abstract: It is important to know whether the laws or phenomena in statistical physics for natural systems with non-adaptive agents still hold for social human systems with adaptive agents, because this implies whether it is possible to study or understand social human systems by using statistical physics originating from natural systems. For this purpose, we review the role of human adaptability in four kinds of specific human behaviors, namely, normal behavior, herd behavior, contrarian behavior, and hedge behavior. The approach is based on controlled experiments in the framework of market-directed resource-allocation games. The role of the controlled experiments could be at least two-fold: adopting the real human decision-making process so that the system under consideration could reflect the performance of genuine human beings; making it possible to obtain macroscopic physical properties of a human system by tuning a particular factor of the system, thus directly revealing cause and effect. As a result, both computer simulations and theoretical analyses help to show a few counterparts of some laws or phenomena in statistical physics for social human systems: two-phase phenomena or phase transitions, entropy-related phenomena, and a non-equilibrium steady state. This review highlights the role of human adaptability in these counterparts, and makes it possible to study or understand some particular social human systems by means of statistical physics coming from natural systems.

Key words: experimental econophysics, computer-aided controlled experiment, phase transition, entropy-like quantity

中图分类号:  (Economics; econophysics, financial markets, business and management)

  • 89.65.Gh
05.90.+m (Other topics in statistical physics, thermodynamics, and nonlinear dynamical systems) 89.75.-k (Complex systems) 05.65.+b (Self-organized systems)