What is Socionomics?

Socionomics is a field of study conducted under the hypothesis that waves of social mood motivate the character of social actions.

What is social mood?
Social mood is a shared mental state among humans that arises from social interaction. Social mood predisposes individuals in the group toward emotions, beliefs and actions. It fluctuates constantly in a fractal pattern. It is unconscious, unremembered and endogenously regulated.

How long has socionomics been around?
Robert Prechter began developing the idea in the 1970s, and it first reached a mass audience in a 1985 cover article in Barron’s. Since then, researchers have applied the hypothesis to explain events including election results, trends in popular culture, the timing of epidemics and pandemics, the emergence of prohibition movements, and financial manias and crashes.

Can I take a university course on socionomics?
Yes, at one university that we know of, the College of William & Mary.

Is socionomics an accepted academic field or is it still emerging?
Prechter and others have authored books, articles and peer-reviewed papers about the theory and its application. Socionomists have presented at multiple academic conferences including the Academy of Behavioral Finance and Economics and at a number of universities including the London School of Economics, MIT, Georgia Tech, SUNY, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and Trinity College Dublin. But, like behavioral finance and other new fields, it is a long way from being “mainstream.”