Monday, May 11, 2009

What is Socionomics?

According to Wikipedia, in 1979, Robert Prechter postulated that social mood drives financial, macroeconomic and political behavior, in contrast to the conventional notion that such events drive social mood. His description of social mood as the driver of cultural trends reached a national audience in a 1985 cover article in Barron's. Prechter coined the term "socionomics" and in 1999 published an exposition of socionomic theory, The Wave Principle of Human Social Behavior.

Since then, the counter-intuitive premise of the socionomic hypothesis -- that in contexts of uncertainty, endogenous processes (not exogenous causes) create patterns of social behavior -- has gained attention in academic journals (see below), and in research funded by the National Science Foundation.

The Socionomics Institute links to studies, papers and articles that illustrate and explore the socionomic perspective.

Prechter, Robert R., Jr. (2001). "Unconscious Herding Behavior as the Psychological Basis of Financial Market Trends and Patterns," Journal of Psychology and Financial Markets (now Journal of Behavioral Finance), vol. 2 no. 3, pp. 120-125.

Olson, Kenneth R. (2006). "A Literature Review of Social Mood," Journal of Behavioral Finance, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 193-203.

Prechter, Robert R., Jr., and Wayne D. Parker (2007). "The Financial/Economic Dichotomy in Social Behavioral Dynamics: The Socionomic Perspective," Journal of Behavioral Finance, vol. 8 no. 2], pp. 84-108.

1 comment:

Kevin Denny said...

Isn't this what that seminar about 2 weeks ago in Geary was about, by a guy named Casti? Without having studied it closely it looks distinctly dodgy to me. Beware of grand claims.