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Is there contextuality in behavioural and social systems?
E N Dzhafarov1, Ru Zhang2, Janne Kujala3
1Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA ehtibar@purdue.edu.
Summary
Behavioral and social systems appear non-contextual, meaning observed "contextual effects" likely stem from response dependencies on unaddressed contextual elements, not true contextuality.
Area of Science:
- Decision science
- Quantum physics
- Behavioral economics
Background:
- Contextuality is studied in cyclic systems with binary outcomes, including quantum physics models.
- Contextuality-by-default theory addresses systems with measurement errors and interactions.
- This theory is applicable to behavioral and social systems due to ubiquitous interactions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate contextuality in behavioral and social systems.
- To test the hypothesis that behavioral and social systems are non-contextual.
- To examine if observed contextual effects arise from response dependencies.
Main Methods:
- Reviewed diverse behavioral and social datasets (polls, illusions, choices, word combinations, psychophysics).
- Applied contextuality-by-default theory to analyze data for non-contextuality conditions.
- Assessed response distributions' dependence on contextual elements.
Main Results:
- No reviewed behavioral or social datasets provided evidence for contextuality.
- Quantum systems exhibit contextuality, unlike the analyzed social systems.
- Hypothesized that contextual effects in social systems result from response dependencies.
Conclusions:
- Behavioral and social systems are likely non-contextual.
- Observed contextual effects are attributed to response dependence on unaddressed context.
- This non-contextuality may be a broadly applicable rule for social systems.
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