Departamento de Análisis Económico, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain.
PLoS One. 2010 Mar 31;5(3):e9881. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009881.
Marital dissolution is ubiquitous in western societies. It poses major scientific and sociological problems both in theoretical and therapeutic terms. Scholars and therapists agree on the existence of a sort of second law of thermodynamics for sentimental relationships. Effort is required to sustain them. Love is not enough.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Building on a simple version of the second law we use optimal control theory as a novel approach to model sentimental dynamics. Our analysis is consistent with sociological data. We show that, when both partners have similar emotional attributes, there is an optimal effort policy yielding a durable happy union. This policy is prey to structural destabilization resulting from a combination of two factors: there is an effort gap because the optimal policy always entails discomfort and there is a tendency to lower effort to non-sustaining levels due to the instability of the dynamics.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These mathematical facts implied by the model unveil an underlying mechanism that may explain couple disruption in real scenarios. Within this framework the apparent paradox that a union consistently planned to last forever will probably break up is explained as a mechanistic consequence of the second law.
婚姻解体在西方社会普遍存在。无论是在理论还是治疗方面，它都带来了重大的科学和社会学问题。学者和治疗师都认同情感关系存在某种热力学第二定律。维持它们需要付出努力。仅仅有爱是不够的。
方法/主要发现：我们基于第二定律的一个简单版本，将最优控制理论用作建模情感动力学的新方法。我们的分析与社会学数据一致。我们表明，当双方具有相似的情感属性时，存在一种最佳的努力策略，可以产生持久的幸福联盟。这种策略容易受到结构失稳的影响，这是由两个因素共同作用的结果：由于最优策略总是伴随着不适，因此存在努力差距；由于动力学的不稳定性，存在降低努力到非维持水平的趋势。
结论/意义：该模型所揭示的这些数学事实揭示了一种潜在的机制，这种机制可能可以解释现实场景中夫妻关系的破裂。在这个框架内，一个始终计划持续下去的联盟很可能会破裂，这一明显悖论可以被解释为第二定律的机械后果。
