Modeling Flirting Success Rates With Schrödinger’s Equation (Part 2 of 2)
Heisenberg. Schrodinger. And... Tinder???
This is a continuation of my last post, “The Applications of Quantum Mechanics in Flirting”, so if you haven’t seen that yet, go read it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/ericzou/p/the-applications-of-quantum-mechanics
The broader purpose of this article is to try to compare various concepts in quantum mechanics, namely electron states, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and Schrödinger's wave equations, to the process which humans talk to and approach one another in the attempt to find a mate, frequently known as flirting. By using quantifiable data from flirting attempts, a wave-like equation can be made that functions similarly to the “wave of probabilities” demonstrated by Schrödinger's equation. This curve fitting will investigate the feasibility of using Schrödinger's equation and the quantum mechanics related to the quantum states of a particle to model the unpredictability of human behavior often seen in flirting, as presented in a previous article, “The Applications of Quantum Mechanics in Flirting”.
By the summer of 2021, most countries, cities, and public institutions in the world have, for the most part, returned to a state of operations similar to conditions before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, over the COVID-19 pandemic, one aspect of everyday life has changed drastically: the use of technology. The rapid expansion and evolution of the online communications world, originally catalyzed by the COVID-19, has neither decelerated nor disappeared after the pandemic. The needs of users, functions provided by online services, and the ways in which said services were all expanded accordingly. Many companies and web applications underwent rapid development, such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Skype, and Discord. Online dating apps such as Tinder changed as well. First and foremost, their usage increased over the pandemic. More importantly, before the pandemic lockdown, users would use dating apps such as Tinder as a staging point in order to meet in person. However, during and after the pandemic, such apps were often used directly, essentially replacing interactions in the real world for users who choose to use it as such. Even though the pandemic is over, and with it restrictions on person-to-person interactions, busy students and people who’s romantic interests are geographically far from them may still use such apps this way. Using such apps without meeting in person, it may prove difficult for users to discern whether a member of the preferred sex (MPS) is interested in them, due to the inherent ambiguity of relying on text messages to communicate.
The primary scientific principle that will be discussed in this article is particle positioning, in the context of the “wave of probabilities” as described by Schrödinger’s equation. The probability wave concept describes the wave-particle duality of light: That the photon is neither completely a particle nor completely a wave, but rather a wave of probabilities that the photon may be at any time. As a wave of probabilities, photons may interfere with each other, as demonstrated by the famous double-slit experiment. However, when it is observed, the wave of superposition collapses into a certain position, with probabilities respective to the wave. This expands on the Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment regarding quantum superposition.
As for Schrödinger’s equation itself, it is often presented as EΨ=ĤΨ. In this case, E is the list of all possible energy states of a particle, in particular, the energy states allowed for an electron. The wave function itself is denoted by Ψ: It presents a wave of probabilities for the state of a particle which coexist in a state of quantum superposition; when the particle is observed, the wave collapses into a single location per the probabilities expressed by Ψ. The Hamiltonian operator, Ĥ, can be expanded as follows: Ĥ= T+V, where T is an operator associated with the kinetic energy of the system, and V is an operator related to the potential energy. Thus, Ĥ represents the total kinetic energy of the system, and E represents the allowed energy states of a particle.
Therefore, the purpose of this investigation is to determine whether there exists a Ψ that can be reasonably used to describe the probability of success of a given flirting attempt. To do this, 5 male Asian-American high school students affected by the aforementioned busy schedules were interviewed about their attempts at talking to an MPS (who may or may not be geographically distant) using an online communications platform. For each of their attempts, they were asked to provide two values: an “expected probability” out of 100, and whether the attempt was successful. The expected probability is to represent what they thought their chances of success would be, in relation to each attempt. This is to serve as the horizontal axis of the wave function. The actual attempt’s success would then be represented as a 0 for a “no”, and a 1 for a “yes”. This will serve as the vertical axis. Because it is expected that the higher the perceived success rate, the higher the actual chances of success, the data should be able to fit on the upward curve of a sinusoidal function. In other words, the period of said wave function should be 400.
The results showed that overall, the higher the predicted the success rate, the higher the likelihood of success. In particular, when fitted to a sinusoidal curve of period 400, the flirting attempts could best be modeled by the equation y = 1.8486 * sin(0.0157 - 2.2357) + 2.1323, where x is the predicted success rate, and y is the expected outcome (see Figure 1). This can represent Ψ, the wave equation. Then, the Hamiltonian operator will show the range of all the outcomes, from 0 to 100 percent. The operator E will then represent the list of possible states that the wave may collapse into: just 1 or 0, yes or no.
The results make sense because human interactions can very well be modeled by quantum physics. Suppose you were at a train station, waiting for a train. If you knew that the train was exactly 5 kilometres away, and it moved at 5 kilometres per hour, you could expect that the train will arrive in exactly 1 hour. Now suppose that train is an electron. Per the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, at the quantum level, it impossible to know both the exact velocity and the exact position of a particle at any given time. Thus, even if you knew the train was exactly 5 kilometres away, you would not know its exact velocity, and thus its exact arrival time would be uncertain. Likewise, if you knew that the train’s velocity was exactly 5 kilometres per hour, you would not be able to measure the exact position of the train, again preventing you from predicting its exact arrival time. The same circumstance applies to flirting (and other human interactions). If one asks an MPS about their current standings with them (position), such inquiries would affect the answer to the MPS’s personal preferences (velocity). As such, one cannot know both their exact standings with an MPS and the effects of their past, current, and future actions on said standings, which means one cannot know their exact probability of success when asking out said MPS.
There are limitations to the scope of this experiment and its applicability. First and foremost, there was a limited sample size, which can impact the outlook on the experiment two ways. The interviewees were all male Asian-American high school sophomores who are close friends at a high school in the United States. Thus, their self-confidence and risk tolerance are more likely to be consistent with each other than for others. This means that while the above wave equation could apply to them and their future attempts, it may not apply to people with different risk-taking behaviors. However, this is actually a blessing in disguise. It means that for each individual and their like-minded peers, there exists a separate wave function Ψ, which they may deduct from their own experiences and apply to Schrödinger’s equation. In theory, one may take their past experiences and flirting attempts and try to form a wave function, which they then, with further research, apply to Schrödinger’s equation and estimate their chances of success. This also opens the road to future investigations into modeling and connecting the general unpredictability of human behavior with quantum superposition and uncertainty theory.