Social science connects with physics: “It offers us a new perspective on how society functions,” says researcher
Dr. Jakub Tesař from the Institute of Political Studies at FSV UK combines social science, quantum physics and environmental policy in his research. He explores how so-called quantum social science can help us better understand human behavior. His work shows that similar principles can apply both to physical particles and to people – and that understanding these patterns can change the way we think about society.
Before starting his undergraduate studies, he was fascinated by two seemingly very different fields – physics and international relations. Unable to choose between them, he decided to study both simultaneously. “Later, I realized that there was something connecting them: both disciplines study systems composed of units that interact with one another and together create certain behavioral patterns. Fundamentally, this is the same in both the physical and the human world,” he explains.
During his studies, he gradually began to consider whether principles of quantum physics could also be applied to research in the social sciences. “Several years later, I discovered that it wasn’t just my ‘wild’ idea; a prominent professor in the field of international relations, Alexander Wendt, actually does this and focuses on what is called quantum social science,” he recalls. Based on this realization, he later enrolled in a PhD program at FSV UK focusing on the application of quantum models to human behavior within the framework of game theory.
He successfully completed his studies and continues to conduct research in quantum social science to this day. According to him, this emerging discipline can be understood in two dimensions. The first involves using quantum probability theory to predict human behavior. “Instead of classical statistical models, quantum statistical models are used – for example, when studying voting preferences,” explains Tesař, adding that this aspect of quantum social science was the focus of both his dissertation and his ongoing research project.
The second perspective, pursued by the aforementioned American professor, takes a broader view and opens up philosophical questions about the nature of reality. “Quantum understanding offers us an alternative explanation of society based on radically different principles. Classical physics assumes that a physical system can be measured with arbitrary precision without changing its state – but this assumption collapses in quantum theory, where a system under observation behaves very differently from one evolving on its own,” he explains.
“This approach can also be applied in the social sciences. One view assumes that a person’s voting preference already exists and I simply measure it without affecting it in any way. But the other view is entirely different: specific preferences don’t exist until we begin to measure them. At the moment I ask someone to make a choice – for example, in a presidential election – they are forced to decide right then and there and commit to one of the options. Measurement itself, therefore, is not independent of the system; it directly influences it. And these relatively radical philosophical ideas are perhaps even more interesting to me now than the mathematical models themselves,” he adds.
At the same time, he emphasizes that this remains a niche topic in academic research. “There are relatively few researchers in this field – partly because having a background in quantum physics isn’t very common among social scientists,” he laughs. Nevertheless, he sees significant potential in further developing this approach, especially in terms of challenging classical worldviews. “When we shift our perspective in some areas, it can lead to a better understanding of society – for example, in the context of climate change. When we perceive humans and nature as two separate entities that interact, it is something entirely different than when we first consider the relationship itself between humans and nature and define both based on that relationship,” he explains. “In my view, the contribution of quantum social science could be relatively radical in terms of changing our entire perspective on the world. But, of course, that would require a significant paradigm shift,” he adds.
Quantum Physics in Research Projects
Since 2022, Dr. Tesař has been the principal investigator of a project funded by the Czech Science Foundation titled Mutual interaction of the self-perspective and the other-perspective in political decision-making: a perspective of quantum social science. He collaborates on the project with colleagues from Germany and Portugal. In general, the project focuses on how quantum models can contribute to a faster and deeper understanding of social phenomena.
One of their results is a new interpretation of the so-called Prisoner’s Dilemma – a well-known metaphor in international relations and game theory. While classical models assume that individual actors will rationally betray one another, the quantum model shows that different motivations to betray can mutually cancel each other out. “Our paper is a re-analysis of this problem based on conflict data between states. We try to understand when and how states enter into conflict,” he explains. “In this case, quantum theory allows for the possibility of interference – mutual cancellation. It means that when I don’t know what the other actor will do, I’m less willing to betray, because I don’t even know the reason why I should. When applying this model, we achieve better results than with classical models that ignore the idea of interference,” he adds.
Within the project, he also had the opportunity to explore another of his academic interests – environmental policy. He worked on an analysis of the work of Czech philosopher Erazim Kohák, who focused on environmental ethics. “I conducted a so-called quantum reading of his ethics of human–nature relations. I tried to update his ideas through the lens of the internal interconnectedness of ecological systems,” he explains.
The most significant outcome of the project is expected to be a collective monograph that will present concepts of quantum theory and their applications across disciplines – from psychology and economics to game theory. “Cambridge University Press has already expressed preliminary interest in publishing the book, which I consider a success at this stage. For the second part of the book, a large number of true pioneers in the field have confirmed their participation – these are the very researchers whose work I studied during my PhD,” he says proudly. “To sum up, the main outcome of our project will be showing how our field – political science and international relations – can be redefined using quantum theory,” he adds.
Dr. Tesař is also involved in another project called Global Flows of Political Information (GLOWIN), funded by Charles University’s PRIMUS program and led by Associate Professor Michal Parízek from the Institute of Political Studies at FSV UK. Within this project, researchers worked with a large database of news from about 60,000 online media outlets in more than 140 countries.
Dr. Tesař focused specifically on how global climate change is discussed in world media. Thanks to the project’s scope, which also covered countries of the Global South – such as Ghana, Vietnam, Botswana, and Venezuela – he was able to uncover new insights. In one case, he focused on the relationship between a country’s wealth and its approach to environmental issues.
“It’s often assumed that wealthier countries with higher average GDP are more environmentally conscious. But this argument is problematic, because so-called ‘less developed,’ nature-based societies often have a highly evolved environmental awareness. Traditionally, studies have focused only on the European context, where a linear relationship between GDP and environmental awareness roughly holds,” he explains.
“But when we examined less affluent countries – across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia – we found that environmental awareness increases there as well. I find that very interesting,” he adds.
European Platform and Academic Conference
Looking ahead, Dr. Tesař plans to continue combining quantum models, international relations, and environmental policy. In addition to completing the aforementioned collective monograph, he and his colleagues would like to establish a European platform for quantum social science and revive an academic conference bringing together researchers from different countries. “This is a topic that interests many people. We have the necessary know-how, and there’s potential to develop it further within a European framework,” he says. “Personally, I find its connection to environmental policy particularly fascinating, and I’d like to keep pursuing that,” he adds.
Dr. Tesař also seeks to promote environmental topics beyond his research – for example, through the faculty’s Sustainability Working Group and by supervising bachelor’s and master’s students who incorporate sustainability into their theses. “I try to bring sustainability beyond lectures and scientific articles. I want to bring it more into people’s daily lives,” he concludes.
