Is there contextuality in behavioural and social systems?

DOI10.1098/RSTA.2015.0099zbMATH Open1353.62134arXiv1504.07422OpenAlexW3106307522WikidataQ38654340 ScholiaQ38654340MaRDI QIDQ2955832FDOQ2955832

Authors: Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov, Ru Zhang, Janne V. Kujala 

Publication date: 13 January 2017

Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Most behavioral and social experiments aimed at revealing contextuality are confined to cyclic systems with binary outcomes. In quantum physics, this broad class of systems includes as special cases Klyachko-Can-Binicioglu-Shumovsky-type, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bell-type, and Suppes-Zanotti-Leggett-Garg-type systems. The theory of contextuality known as Contextuality-by-Default allows one to define and measure contextuality in all such system, even if there are context-dependent errors in measurements, or if something in the contexts directly interacts with the measurements. This makes the theory especially suitable for behavioral and social systems, where direct interactions of "everything with everything" are ubiquitous. For cyclic systems with binary outcomes the theory provides necessary and sufficient conditions for noncontextuality, and these conditions are known to be breached in certain quantum systems. We review several behavioral and social data sets (from polls of public opinion to visual illusions to conjoint choices to word combinations to psychophysical matching), and none of these data provides any evidence for contextuality. Our working hypothesis is that this may be a broadly applicable rule: behavioral and social systems are noncontextual, i.e., all "contextual effects" in them result from the ubiquitous dependence of response distributions on the elements of contexts other than the ones to which the response is presumably or normatively directed.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.07422

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of statistics to psychology (62P15) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to statistics (62-02) Experimental work for problems pertaining to quantum theory (81-05)

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Cited In (21)

• Theoretical framework underlying contextual system of measurements in cognitive domain
• Classical versus quantum probability: comments on the paper ``On universality of classical probability with contextually labeled random variables by E. Dzhafarov and M. Kon
• On universality of classical probability with contextually labeled random variables: response to A. Khrennikov
• On universality of classical probability with contextually labeled random variables
• Generalized Fock space and contextuality
• True contextuality in a psychophysical experiment
• Stochastic unrelatedness, couplings, and contextuality
• The contextuality-by-default view of the sheaf-theoretic approach to contextuality
• Quantum cognition and Bell's inequality: a model for probabilistic judgment bias
• On contextuality in behavioural data
• Quantum probability and the mathematical modelling of decision-making
• Context-content systems of random variables: the contextuality-by-default theory
• Negative probabilities and contextuality
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• Advanced analysis of quantum contextuality in a psychophysical double-detection experiment
• A note on the relation between the contextual fraction and \(\mathrm{CNT}_2\)
• Continuous-variable nonlocality and contextuality
• Contextuality in canonical systems of random variables
• Measures of contextuality and non-contextuality
• Quantum Bayesian perspective for intelligence reservoir characterization, monitoring and management
• Contextuality and dichotomizations of random variables

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