Introducing the brain: quantum analysis of opinions (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, March 29, 2024, 18:09 (239 days ago) @ David Turell

Sabine Hossenfelder again:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGxSRQsPVhWsZrZhNwfmHldpfTh

"...a mathematician has come up with the idea of quantum cognition. Yes, quantum cognition.

"...quantum cognition is about borrowing the mathematics of quantum physics to better understand human thinking. The idea is that this could explain why humans sometimes use reasoning that doesn’t follow the rules of classical logic.

"An interesting example of human irrationality comes from a 2002 study in which an American researcher found that when people were asked whether Al Gore is honest, 68 percent said yes. Asked afterwards whether Bill Clinton was honest, 57 percent said yes.

"But if the participants were first asked whether Clinton was honest, then he got only 50 percent and Al Gore then got 60. In both cases, Al Gore came out ahead, but the baseline was lower stating from Clinton.

"Basically, people don’t agree with themselves so how do you make sense of this? Well, you do it by taking into account that their opinion depends on the order in which you ask the questions. This order-dependence also happens in quantum physics. And that’s what this quantum cognition business is about. (my bold)

***

"The upshot of the paper is really that certain observations about the probability of making one choice or the other can be modelled with equations that are also being used in quantum physics, like those operations where the outcome depends on the order. Indeed the author says that he can explain the experiment where people give honesty-ratings to Clinton and Al Gore depending on the order “to within a plus minus 10 percent error margin”.

"You see if you want to sound really sciency, you put an error margin on it.

"He also says that his formalism can explain confirmation bias. It works roughly like this. You know how a quantum particle can’t have a precisely defined position and momentum at the same time? Now suppose you have a quantum particle that’s very well localized. If you measure the position, you get a lot of information about where the particle is. But if you measure momentum, you just learn that it’s all over the place.

"So, the author’s idea is that if you give information, say, a news article, to people’s quantum brains, they will measure different quantities. Depending on what they “measure”, some will learn a lot, others, not so much.

***

"What this quantum cognition business means to me is that the mathematical tools that we develop in physics are very versatile and can often be employed in many circumstances. It might well be that some equations used in quantum mechanics can be used to describe human decision making."

Comment: I presented this article because dhw is so sure the past colors decision making. This careful study uses only democrats, removing political bias. Note the bold. It is how the issue is presented that dictates the results. The order of questions is what influences the result, not the past influences.