Social Mood and Behaviour
First published: 1999
Brief summary
Socionomics Institute overview relating social mood and collective behaviour.
Article
Socionomics proposes that collective social mood influences patterns of social behaviour, including financial markets, politics, popular culture and economic decisions. It treats mood as an endogenous social process rather than primarily as a response to external news or events.
The theory uses stock-market indexes as indicators of changing social mood, arguing that optimistic mood is associated with rising markets, cooperation and expanding activity, while pessimistic mood is associated with falling markets, conflict and contraction.
Practitioners apply wave-based market analysis and compare changes in financial prices with later changes in social actions. The approach claims that market movement can precede shifts in news, politics or economic behaviour because both arise from underlying mood.
Socionomics is not a mainstream sociological or economic consensus. Its causal assumptions, measurement of social mood and use of market patterns remain controversial, and evidence must be assessed independently of the institute promoting the theory.
Source details and credits
- Source / publisher: Socionomics Institute
- Source type: Theory site
- URL type: WWW
- Credits: Socionomics Institute
- URL: https://www.socionomics.net/