Universality and scaling in human and social systems

TL;DR

This paper explores how principles of universality and scaling from statistical physics apply to human and social systems, revealing common patterns across diverse social phenomena.

Contribution

It reviews examples of universal and scaling behaviors in social systems, bridging concepts from physics to social science.

Findings

Universal crossover behavior of stock returns

Scaling in literary data

Universal trends in evolution of states or countries

Abstract

The objective of statistical physics is to understand macroscopic behavior of a many-body system from the interactions of the constituents of that system. When many-body systems reach critical states, simple universal and scaling behaviors appear. In this talk, I first introduce the concepts of universality and scaling in critical physical systems, I then briefly review some examples of universal and scaling behaviors in human and social systems, e.g. universal crossover behavior of stock returns, universality and scaling in the statistical data of literary works, universal trend in the evolution of states or countries etc. Finally, I mention some interesting problems for further studies.