Statistical physics has proven to be a very fruitful framework to describe phenomena outside the realm of traditional physics. The last years have witnessed the attempt by physicists to study phenomena which heavily rely on human behavior, like the dynamics of financial markets and the emergence of collective organization in social systems. Stochastic dynamics, phase transitions, scaling, metastability and other concepts and tools of statistical physics have then come into play in the study of social phenomena. Microscopic models have been devised, where each individual is represented by few degrees of freedom, which quantify its relevant attributes, and simple rules for the interaction of the individuals with their peers determine the dynamics. For a recent review see the review article that appeared in Reviews of Modern Physics.
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