In human thermodynamics, social pressure is physical equivalent of pressure as force per unit area exerted on one human molecule or on the surface boundary of a system of human molecules. [1] In 1985, American physicist-engineer Arthur Iberall defined the idea of social pressure as such: [4]

“The potentials that drive the fluxes of the human social system, the most evident being the external and internal physical-chemical potentials, include a sheaf of potential-like components that represent the command-control system emergent as politics. On the whole, culture represents the social equivalent with the main processes of economics and politics being driven by a social pressure.”

Overview
In 1992, American relationship theorist Teresa Brennan discusses social energy, emphasizing Sigmund Freud’s physical psyche model using the notion of conflicting forces complemented by bound energy and free energy. In her 1997 article “Social Pressure”, she argues that social pressure operates as physical energy, arguing that social pressures are pressures to conform but also those exerted on the psyche in the same way that physical pressures are exerted on the body. [2]

In 2005, German physicist Ingo Muller gave a formulaic interpretation of the external pressures acting on a system of doves surrounded by hawks. He states “let the ∂V or part of the boundary be moveable under and external pressure”, and gives the following intuitive and heuristic equation for the change in the energy of the social system as a function of work done by pressures in moving the boundary: [3]

where is the external pressure acting on the system, U is the internal energy, V is the volume, and t is time.

References
1. (a) Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume One) (social pressure, pgs. 61, 83, etc.). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
(b) Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume Two) (social pressure, pgs. 410, 630, etc.). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
2. (a) Oliver, Kelly. (2001). Witnessing: Beyond Recognition (pg. 196-197). University of Minnesota Press.
(b) Brennan, Teresa. (1997). “Social Pressure”, American Imago 54(3): 257-88.
3. Muller, Ingo. (2005). Energy and Entropy: A Universal Competition (socio-thermodynamics, pgs. 12, 203-221). Springer.
4. Iberall, Arthur S. (1985). “Outlining Social Physics for Modern Societies: Locating Cultures, Economics, and Politics: the Enlightenment Reconsidered.” (abstract), Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 82(17): 5582-84.