Pioneering Studies in Socionomics

Socionomics Foundation ^ | Robert Prechter

[babylontoday]

STANDARD VIEW

1. Recession causes businessmen to be cautious.

2. Talented leaders make the population happy.

3. A rising stock market makes people increasingly optimistic.

4. Scandals make people outraged.

5. War makes people angry.

6. Happy music makes people smile.

7. Nuclear bomb testing makes people nervous.

SOCIONOMIC VIEW

1. Cautious businessmen cause recession.

2. A happy population makes leaders appear talented.

3. Increasingly optimistic people make the stock market rise.

4. Outraged people seek out scandals.

5. Fearful and angry people make war.

6. People who want to smile choose happy music.

7. Nervous people test nuclear bombs.

http://www.socionomics.org/about/socionomics_002.aspx

Here is a fascinating chart (scanned with permission) from the book "Pioneering Studies in Socionomics" regarding the relationship between the stock market and human conceptions. http://www.babylontoday.com/stock_prices_vs_annual_conceptions.htm#chart

[babylontoday]

http://www.babylontoday.com/stock_prices_vs_annual_conceptions.htm#chart

[FreeKeys]

Its links' links eventually lead to:

R. N. Elliott’s Fundamental Challenge To Mechanistic Social Models

Dr. Michael K. Green, State University of New York at Oneonta

Abstract

Nineteenth century physicists called into question the mechanistic approach of Newtonian physics, which was based on atomism, reductionism, the unity of the sciences and the primacy of external causality, by developing various field theories. Developments in thermodynamics also called into question the reductive approach of mechanism. R.N. Elliott, an American social thinker who lived from 1871 to 1948, applied the principles of the new physics, i.e., holism, waves, pluralism and internal self-organization, to society and developed an alternative to social mechanism. He thought that mass psychology, impelled by emotion and not reason, was the driving force of human society and that these emotional waves swept through society in a five-wave sequence. According to Elliott, aggregate stock market prices provide the most direct and detailed measure of these moods. Elliott's ideas differ fundamentally from all mechanistic macroeconomic models, including Marxism, Keynesianism, monetarism and the Efficient Market Hypothesis.

To read the complete essay, click here.

-- at http://www.socionomics.org/papers/elliotts_challenge.aspx

I have Prechter's book on Elliot Waves. Very interesting.