A theory of social imitation

JUL 01, 1974

Fish aligned in their schools, fireflies flashing in unison, and even humans following the dictates of fashion are examples of ordered systems to which we can apply ferromagnet theory.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3128690

Earl Callen

Don Shapero

Buridan, the French religious philosopher, is credited (probably falsely) with describing an ass standing midway between two identical bales of hay: Being French, and therefore cool and logical, the ass starved to death, because there was no way to decide which bale to eat first. Only philosophical asses behave in that way. Animals, like magnets, break symmetry, especially animals in groups. We shall discuss some examples of such antisymmetric behavior and see whether it can be described quantitatively, similarly to the way we describe magnetism.

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More about the authors

Earl Callen, American University, Washington, D.C..

Don Shapero, Catholic University, Washington, D.C..