Grand challenges in social physics: In pursuit of moral behavior

TL;DR

This paper advocates for applying statistical physics methods to study various forms of moral behavior in social systems, aiming to understand societal evolution, moral principles, conflicts, and their resolutions.

Contribution

It introduces a new research direction using statistical physics to analyze diverse moral behaviors beyond cooperation in social dilemmas.

Findings

Highlights the importance of moral behavior in social physics

Proposes future research avenues for moral conflict prediction

Connects statistical physics methods with moral social dynamics

Abstract

Methods of statistical physics have proven valuable for studying the evolution of cooperation in social dilemma games. However, recent empirical research shows that cooperative behavior in social dilemmas is only one kind of a more general class of behavior, namely moral behavior, which includes reciprocity, respecting others' property, honesty, equity, efficiency, as well as many others. Inspired by these experimental works, we here open up the path towards studying other forms of moral behavior with methods of statistical physics. We argue that this is a far-reaching direction for future research that can help us answer fundamental questions about human sociality. Why did our societies evolve as they did? What moral principles are more likely to emerge? What happens when different moral principles clash? Can we predict the break out of moral conflicts in advance and contribute to their solution? These are amongst the most important questions of our time, and methods of statistical physics could lead to new insights and contribute towards finding answers.