A possible human counterpart of the principle of increasing entropy
- a Department of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
- b Department of Applied Physics, College of Science, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China
- Received 25 April 2013
- Revised 25 November 2013
- Accepted 14 December 2013
- Available online 17 December 2013
- Communicated by R. Wu
Highlights
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We propose a concept of entropy-like quantity in an isolated human system.
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The entropy-like quantity denotes the degree of uncertainty with arbitrage opportunities.
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We conduct a series of human experiments with four kinds of behaviors.
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The human system re-produces a principle, which is similar to the principle of increasing entropy in natural systems.
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The principle provides a different viewpoint to understand social human systems.
Abstract
It is well-known that the principle of increasing entropy holds for isolated natural systems that contain non-adaptive molecules. Here we present, for the first time, an experimental evidence for a possible human counterpart of the principle in an isolated social system that involves adaptive humans. Our work shows that the human counterpart is valid even though interactions among humans in social systems are distinctly different from those among molecules in natural systems. Thus, it becomes possible to understand social systems from this natural principle, at least to some extent.
