Social Physics and Big Data

Professor emeritus, Agora CenterUniversity of Jyväskylä

Consulting Sustainable InnovationAntti.Hautamaki(at)kolumbus.fi

What is wrong with social sciences?

• Social sciences does not help us to understand modern digital (post-industrial and post-modern) society

• Theories of social sciences are so ”last century”

• There has not been real progress in social sciences in decades

• Still the methodology is based either case studies or interviews; big data is not used enough

• Major challenge is how to bridge the gap between used methodology and possibilities of big data

• New mathematical methods have to develop

Social Physics (Alex Pentland)

• ”Social physics seeks to understand how the flow of ideas and information translates into changes in behavior”.

• Big data about human behavior drives social physics.

• Big data reveals how people in fact interact and communicate.

• Big data is got by reality mining in living labs: internet and social media, calls records, credit cards transactions, GPS location fixes etc.

• + Big data collecting by sociometric badges.

Alex Pentland: Social Physics, 2014

Sociometric badge

Two basic concepts of social physics

• Idea flow within social networks, and how it con be separated into exploration and engagement

• Social learning, which is how new ideas become habits, and how learning can be accelerated and shaped by social pressure.

Social learning

• Social learning is a dominant mechanism of behavior change.

• We all lives in idea flow • Exploration is a process to find new ideas in social

networks.• Engagement is social learning taking form of behavioral

norms: adopting norms by examples, iteration and social pressure

• In social physics the social influence is analyzed by using big data and mathematical tools (it’s “physics”)

• The content of believes turn to be not so important for explaining societal changes

Interaction Idea flow

ExplorationNew ideas

New believes

EngagementAdopting ideas

New habits

New behaviou

r

The process of social learning

New habitsNew ideas

Social learning process

Network effect/time

ExporationWeak links

EngagmentStrong linksPressure

IntractionInfluence

Innovation

• In innovation two things are necessary:1. To have access to idea flows2. To be capable to integrate new ideas to the

DNA of the organization• Innovations are combinations of

different ideas• Weak links open access to new ideas• Strong links enforce adopting ideas

A.Hautamäki & K. Oksanen (2012): Suuntana innovaatiokeskittymä

Benefits of Social Physics

• We can apply big data and exact mathematical tools

• Results are “objective” reflecting how people in fact behave and change their behavior

• We could uncover the real connections between innovation and different patterns of behavior and communication

• In general we could understand accurately the mechanism of change in society

• Finally: a new theory of society is emerging