Quantum Behavioral Economics
Huilin Zhao
Since its emergence in the 1970s, behavioral economics has integrated psychological insights into economics—drawing on Kahneman and Tversky's prospect theory, Thaler's psychological accounting and boost theory, and Schiller's behavioral finance—thereby dismantling the myth of the "homo economicus" and revealing systematic cognitive biases inherent to human decision-making. However, classical behavioral economics has been constructed from a collection of fragmented "effects" and "biases," lacking a unified, axiomatic mathematical framework; moreover, the frequent practice among researchers to selectively apply individual effects has undermined the discipline's predictive power and theoretical coherence. This book is the first academic monograph in the world to systematically expound on quantum behavioral economics—a new paradigm devised specifically to overcome this fundamental dilemma. It introduces concepts such as Hilbert spaces, state vectors, superposition, entanglement, measurement collapse, quantum probability, interference effects, unitary evolution, decoherence, non-commutative observables, and quantum phase transitions into the foundational bedrock of behavioral economics: that preferences and beliefs coexist in a superposition prior to decision-making; that decision-making consists of constructing measurements to extract definite preferences via measurement collapse; and that the beliefs and behaviors of individuals are entangled, exhibiting non-local quantum correlations. Furthermore, it posits that the sequence in which information is presented and the framing effects are intrinsic properties of quantum decision-making—rather than mere "biases." This book comprises six parts and thirty chapters: Part I, "Paradigm Revolution," establishes the philosophical foundations, the quantum subject hypothesis, and the analytical framework; Part II develops quantum probabilistic judgments, quantum heuristics, quantum prospect theory, quantum decision-making under uncertainty, and quantum framing effects; Part III explores quantum preferences, quantum utility, quantum choice theory, quantum endowment effects and loss aversion, as well as the current state of quantum research and default effects; Part IV extends the scope to quantum social preferences, quantum altruism, quantum trust and cooperation, quantum game theory, and quantum public goods games; Part V examines quantum intertemporal choice, quantum hyperbolic discounting, quantum self-control, quantum procrastination and addiction, and quantum habit formation and behavioral change across temporal dimensions; Part VI demonstrates the application of framing in finance, markets, public policy, and health domains, while offering insights into the future of this discipline. This work pursues three overarching objectives: theoretical unification and depth, originality and authority, and seamless readability. It is intended for graduate students, faculty, and researchers in behavioral economics, decision science, psychology, and finance, as well as for public policy makers and practitioners in financial markets to provide new paradigm-based analytical tools.
•Sep 1, 2026•0 citations