Sociophysics and Econophysics, the Future of Social Science?

I did an economics undergrad. One thing that really frustrated me about the whole subject was how they kept calling it a social “science” and yet there was no experiment or predictions. Everything was a retroactive explanation for something, e.g. the financial crash or the affect of a minimum wage. Where’s the predictions? Another thing that bothered me was that often it felt like they were introducing maths to make it all seem a bit more legit: like solving integrals for second-price bid auctions or describing utility functions and so on. But that was always just a cute model with no experimental evidence to back it up.

Basically, I think social sciences should stop calling itself a science unless they start making predictions. And they should make it more like statistics and psychology classes. Evidence is king.

Re: Sociophysics and Econophysics, the Future of Social Science?

#6

Post by d--b » Thu, Sep 27, 2018, 8:43 AM UTC

These guys should take some clues from quantum mechanics, where observing or trying to control the system observed screws it up.

“Physics found we can take advantage of Facebook to spread opinions and control people’s minds” - “oh shit, we polarized the people, and now we’re on the verge of WWIII”

Re: Sociophysics and Econophysics, the Future of Social Science?

#7

Post by globglob » Thu, Sep 27, 2018, 9:30 AM UTC

Moodles wrote: post #5

It’s cool to have some mathematical rules of thumb to describe crowds and so on if it is backed up by experimental data. I did an economics undergrad. One thing that really frustrated me about the whole subject was how they kept calling it a social “science” and yet there was no experiment or predictions. Everything was a retroactive explanation for something, e.g. the financial crash or the affect of a minimum wage.…

It seems you just were not exposed to experiments in economics, which are widely used in micro, development and public/policy evaluation.

Re: Sociophysics and Econophysics, the Future of Social Science?

#8

Post by grenoire » Thu, Sep 27, 2018, 9:55 AM UTC

Moodles wrote: post #5

It’s cool to have some mathematical rules of thumb to describe crowds and so on if it is backed up by experimental data. I did an economics undergrad. One thing that really frustrated me about the whole subject was how they kept calling it a social “science” and yet there was no experiment or predictions. Everything was a retroactive explanation for something, e.g. the financial crash or the affect of a minimum wage.…

Here we go, another HN comment that's awfully quick to dismiss the history of economic methodology and economics as science because they took one undergraduate class in Neoclassical Microeconomics 101.

Please, this is exactly like a first year psychology student trying to psychoanalyse you: Absolute bullshit. Economics has a lot more to offer than supply-demand curves, and it has been evolving greatly in many different directions and sub-fields like behavioural economics (especially living its golden age right now). Different schools of thought exist, and not everybody in the field is solving derivatives.

Re: Sociophysics and Econophysics, the Future of Social Science?

#9

Post by Moodles » Thu, Sep 27, 2018, 10:19 AM UTC

grenoire wrote: post #8

Moodles wrote: post #5

It’s cool to have some mathematical rules of thumb to describe crowds and so on if it is backed up by experimental data. I did an economics undergrad. One thing that really frustrated me about the whole subject was how they kept calling it a social “science” and yet there was no experiment or predictions. Everything was a retroactive explanation for something, e.g. the financial crash or the affect of a minimum wage.…

Here we go, another HN comment that's awfully quick to dismiss the history of economic methodology and economics as science because they took one undergraduate class in Neoclassical Microeconomics 101. Please, this is exactly like a first year psychology student trying to psychoanalyse you: Absolute bullshit. Economics has a lot more to offer than supply-demand curves, and it has been evolving greatly in many differe…

Well, I have first class degree in economics to be fair. I got the highest score across the university. I didn't just take one class and make my mind up. But I agree that doesn't make me an expert in the field. I also agree behavioral economics is a better direction. However, I'm just saying many strands of it need to use evidence more. A lot of models were kinda cute but also pretty silly. Game theory is a bit of a kafuffle -- Ariel Rubenstein agrees. I didn't see any predictions or studying of real-world data in my whole time studying it. The least we can agree on is that there should be way more of a focus on that for university level.

Re: Sociophysics and Econophysics, the Future of Social Science?

#10

Post by mslip » Thu, Sep 27, 2018, 10:20 AM UTC

Moodles wrote: post #5

It’s cool to have some mathematical rules of thumb to describe crowds and so on if it is backed up by experimental data. I did an economics undergrad. One thing that really frustrated me about the whole subject was how they kept calling it a social “science” and yet there was no experiment or predictions. Everything was a retroactive explanation for something, e.g. the financial crash or the affect of a minimum wage.…

Neuroeconomics