The Social Atom

The idiosyncrasies of human decision-making have confounded economists and social theorists for years. If each person makes choices for personal (and often irrational) reasons, how can people's choices be predicted by a single theory? How can "any" economic, social, or political theory be valid? The truth is, none of them really are. Mark Buchanan makes the fascinating argument that the science of physics is beginning to provide a new picture of the human or "social atom," and help us understand the surprising, and often predictable, patterns that emerge when they get together. Look at patterns, not people, Buchanan argues, and rules emerge that can explain how movements form, how interest groups operate, and even why ethnic hatred persists. Using similar observations, social physicists can predict whether neighborhoods will integrate, whether stock markets will crash, and whether crime waves will continue or abate. Brimming with mind games and provocative experiments, "The Social Atom" is an incisive, accessible, and comprehensive argument for a whole new way to look at human social behavior. Mark Buchanan is a theoretical physicist and an associate editor at "Complexus," a journal on biocomplexity. He has been an editor at "Nature" and "New Scientist," and is the author of two prize-nominated books, "Ubiquity: The Science of History" and "Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks." He lives in Cambridgeshire, England. The idiosyncrasies of human decision-making have confounded economists and social theorists for years. If each person makes choices for personal (and often irrational) reasons, how can people's choices be predicted by a single theory? The validity of any economic, social, or political theory comes into question. Mark Buchanan argues that the science of physics is beginning to provide a new picture of the human or "social atom," and help us understand the surprising, and often predictable, patterns that emerge when they get together. Look at patterns, not people, Buchanan argues, and rules emerge that can explain how movements form, how interest groups operate, and even why ethnic hatred persists. Using similar observations, social physicists can predict whether neighborhoods will integrate, whether stock markets will crash, and whether crime waves will continue or abate. "The Social Atom" is an incisive, accessible, and comprehensive argument for a new way to look at human social behavior. "Mark Buchanan is] a theoretical physicist . . . Buchanan argues that one of the basic assumptions of economics--namely, that humans make only reasoned, greedy, self-promoting decisions--is a simplification that calls the whole field into question . . . A former editor of the prestigious science journal "Nature," Buchanan witnessed a growing number of physicists write papers about familiar mathematical patterns cropping up in human behavior. This inspired him to write "The Social Atom." His goal is to consider people 'as if they were atoms or molecules following fairly simple rules' and investigate the idea that 'seemingly complicated social happenings may often have quite simple origins, and that we can discover such simplicity by examining how we too may be subject to laws not unlike those of physics' . . . The book asks] readers to move away from thinking of humans as individuals when it comes to social behavior in a group. We are . . . simple atoms that think alike, copy one another and self-organize according to common mathematical patterns."--Russ Juskalian, "USA Today" "Humans mimic other humans, whether they're clapping or buying mobile phones, writes Mark Buchanan in his beguiling behavioral study . . . Yet the same force may influence bigger decisions in life, like whether to have kids, he says. European birthrates slowed so dramatically between 1950 and 2000 that researchers concluded the trend was 'amplified and exaggerated by peer pressure' . . . A theoretical physicist, Buchanan suggests that sociologists should spend less time scrutinizing individual behavior and more time studying the group. 'Think of patterns, not people, ' he urges, arguing that people are the atoms, or building blocks, of the social world. We imitate each other, cooperate, learn and adapt in a giant feedback system. Writing in lean, fluid sentences, Buchanan clicks through examples ranging from the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management to the slaughter at Srebrenica. He shows patterns at work in phantom traffic jams, stock sell-offs and the trails human feet carve through public parks . . . As promised in the book's subtitle, Buchanan explains 'Why the Rich Get Richer, Cheaters Get Caught, and Your Neighbor Usually Looks Like You' . . . Buchanan is] on to something big."--James Pressley, "Bloomberg News" "Likely the "Blink" or "Freakonomics "of 2007, theoretical physicist Buchanan's new book explains how we replicate the behavior of people we admire, and stick close to people with shared fu