1. science
2. medicine
3. psychology and psychiatry

Human energy concepts in the social sciences
and how to model them
Christopher Watts
Centre for Research in Social Simulation (CRESS)
Social Energy Satellite Workshop, ECCS’11, Vienna
What do we want of a
human energy concept?
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Based in social & behavioural sciences
Easy to communicate and learn
Practical to measure
Rigorous tools
– maths or computer simulation
• An analogy with physics?
– But human energy is created in social interactions
• Not converted from other sources
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Some candidates
• Psychology of Mood
– (Thayer; PANAS)
• Social psychology of Intrinsic Motivation
– (Ryan & Deci)
• Social network analysis of energising relations
– (Cross & Parker)
• Sociology of Interaction Rituals
– (Collins)
• Social mood
– (Casti)
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Psychology of mood
• Measured by questionnaire surveys
– Respondents self monitor their feelings of energy and vitality
– Use statistics on the results (e.g. t-tests, regression, SEM)
• Related to:
– Physiological factors – e.g. food, sleep, drug-taking
– Performance at work, innovation & creativity
– Other psychological constructs – e.g. feelings about work and social
contacts
• Typically combined with other constructs
– Energetic arousal (Thayer 1989) & Tense arousal
– Positive Affect (Watson et al 1988) & Negative Affect
– Thriving (Spreitzer & Sutcliffe 2007) = Vitality & Learning
• How do you feel about questionnaire surveys?
– Independent, identically distributed data?
– Scaleable?
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Some candidates
• Psychology of Mood
– (Thayer; PANAS)
• Social psychology of Intrinsic Motivation
– (Ryan & Deci)
• Social network analysis of energising relations
– (Cross & Parker)
• Sociology of Interaction Rituals
– (Collins)
• Social mood
– (Casti)
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Intrinsic Motivation
• Lab studies by Ryan & Deci (e.g. 2000)
– Subjects provided with an activity interesting in itself
– Some subjects encouraged to perform the activity; some left to
discover it for themselves
• Observations
– Extrinsic motivation raises activity levels
• e.g. rewards & punishment, praise & blame
– But these drop below their initial value, once extrinsic motivation
halts
• i.e. Applying extrinsic motivation destroys intrinsic
motivation!
• Obviously has implications for the work place
– Target setting, Bonus schemes, Piece-rate pay
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The ABC of selfdetermination
• Language and body language raises
intrinsic motivation if it enhances feelings
of:
– Autonomy
– Belongingness, or relatedness
– Competence
• Controlling behaviour reduces intrinsic
motivation
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Some candidates
• Psychology of Mood
– (Thayer; PANAS)
• Social psychology of Intrinsic Motivation
– (Ryan & Deci)
• Social network analysis of energising relations
– (Cross & Parker)
• Sociology of Interaction Rituals
– (Collins)
• Social mood
– (Casti)
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Energising & Deenergising relations
• Questionnaire surveys (Cross & Parker 2004)
– Who, when you interact with them, leaves you feeling
energised / de-energised?
• Social network analysis (maps & metrics)
– Identify the hubs in the networks
• Act on the information
– Coach the de-energisers
• Often the managers!
– Build teams around energisers
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Two agent-based
simulations
• Baker & Quinn (working paper 2007)
– Tried to fit empirical network metrics
• Watts (PhD 2009)
– Confirmed that it was possible that
• Energisers more likely to have their ideas taken up and acted
on
• Larger groups likely to form around energisers
• Problem-solving performance higher with energisers
– Explained non-diffusion of ideas across cultural
boundaries
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Some candidates
• Psychology of Mood
– (Thayer; PANAS)
• Social psychology of Intrinsic Motivation
– (Ryan & Deci)
• Social network analysis of energising relations
– (Cross & Parker)
• Sociology of Interaction Rituals
– (Collins)
• Social mood
– (Casti)
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Interaction Rituals
• Sociological theory for explaining social
phenomena (Collins 2004)
– Intellectual creativity, violence, smoking, sex,
class, …
• Quantitative and qualitative data sources
– Including video evidence of micro-behaviour
• Part of a long tradition: Durkheim, Weber,
Goffman, Garfinkel
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Collins’s theory
• Agents choose between opportunities for
participating in interaction rituals
– Max expected emotional energy returns from IR on
material costs
• Emotional energy and cultural capital
– Agents employ their cultural capital (CC) during IR
• Also need material resources (fees, props, venues)
– Emotional energy (EE) charges on CC determines
expectations (confidence)
– Mutual awareness of common focus of attention
generates new EE charges
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Conditions & outcomes
Ritual Ingredients
Ritual Outcomes
Group assembly (bodily copresence)
Group solidarity
Barrier to outsiders
Emotional energy in
individual
Common action or event
(including stereotyped
formalities)
Mutual focus of attention
Transient emotional
stimulus
Shared mood
Collective effervescence
Symbols of social
relationship (sacred
objects)
Standards of morality
Feedback intensification
through rhythmic
entrainment
Righteous anger for
violations
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IR theory applied
Symbols of group
membership
(“cultural capital”)
Group focuses on
its Sacred Objects
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Interaction ritual
(IR) to recharge
symbols
Successful IR:
Symbols charged
up for years
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Material resources
needed for IR
Unsuccessful IR?
Symbols not
recharged well
Group solidarity
(“emotional energy”)
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Interaction ritual chains:
an agent-based model?
Agent a3
EE(a3, t2)
CC(a3, t2)
IR
Agent a1
Agent a1
Agent a1
EE(a1, t1)
EE(a1, t2)
EE(a1, t3)
CC(a1, t1)
CC(a1, t2)
CC(a1, t3)
IR
Agent a2
Agent a2
Agent a2
EE(a2, t1)
EE(a2, t2)
EE(a2, t3)
CC(a2, t1)
CC(a2, t2)
CC(a2, t3)
IR
Agent a4
EE(a4, t2)
CC(a4, t2)
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Some candidates
• Psychology of Mood
– (Thayer; PANAS)
• Social psychology of Intrinsic Motivation
– (Ryan & Deci)
• Social network analysis of energising relations
– (Cross & Parker)
• Sociology of Interaction Rituals
– (Collins)
• Social mood
– (Casti)
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Social mood
• John Casti (2011)
– Common social mood generated by social
gathering
– Dramatic events follow mood, not vice versa
• A proxy for social mood is the stock
market index
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Where next?
• What could we do with a concept of
human energy…
– given our current interests?
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Towards a theory of
social organisation
• Explain the scaling laws (Geoffrey West et al)
– The bigger the city…
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•
•
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the fewer the gas stations per capita
the faster the walking speed
the more entrepreneurs per capita
the more patents per capita
• Biological systems are optimised for energy
efficiency
– What are social organisations optimised for?
• Why do cities outlive firms?
– Controlling (bureaucracy) kills innovation – and deenergises!
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Sustainability studies
• Don’t just count material flows
• Measure social interactions
– Not just quantity but quality (energising, innovating
etc.), contents (surprising?, complex), and material
resources (fees, props, venues) involved
– “A city is its social interactions…”
• Can we reduce resource consumption without
reducing social interaction?
• Or reducing innovation?
– How are we going to innovate our way out of resource
constraints without social interactions?
– E.g. should I fly to a climate-change conference?
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How to reach new
consensus
•
What if decision makers / stakeholders cannot agree?
– Their behaviours express conflicting group identities
– A problem in constraint satisfaction (K-SAT?)
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Focus everyone’s attention on new objects
– E.g. engage them in exciting / emotional group activities
– Charge them up with emotional energy (confidence), then hope for some spill
over effects
• Compare Simulated Annealing
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Redefine the group identities
– Won’t work unless done by a group leader / central member or a sacred object
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Focus their attention on their other group identities
– “Yes, you’re a Republican, but you’re also a parent / Christian / American /
human being / …”
•
De-energise the old identities
– Wait for old symbols to decay, and prevent re-charging by isolating people from
their old groups
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Combine or select?
• Psychology of Mood
– (Thayer; PANAS)
• Social psychology of Intrinsic Motivation
– (Ryan & Deci)
• Social network analysis of energising relations
– (Cross & Parker)
• Sociology of Interaction Rituals
– (Collins)
• Social mood
– (Casti)
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