Entering the 5G/6G era, the core concept of human-centric communications has intensified the search effort into analytical frameworks for integrating technological and non-technological domains. Among non-technological domains, human behavioral, psychological, and socio-economic contexts are widely considered as indispensable elements for characterizing user experience (UE). In this study, we introduce the prospect theory as a promising methodology for modeling UE and perceptual measurements for human-centric communications. As the founding pillar of behavioral economics, the prospect theory proposes the non-linear quantity and probability perception of human psychology, which extends to five fundamental behavioral attributes that have profound implications for diverse disciplines. By expatiating on the prospect theoretic framework, we aim to provide a guideline for developing human-centric communications and articulate a novel interdisciplinary research area for further investigation.

The controversy and argument on the usefulness of the physical layer (PHY) academic research for wireless communications are long-standing since the cellular communication paradigm gets to its maturity. In particular, researchers suspect that the performance improvement in cellular communications is primarily attributable to the increases in telecommunication infrastructure and radio spectrum instead of the PHY academic research, whereas concrete evidence is lacking. To respond to this controversy from an objective perspective, we employ econometric approaches to quantify the contributions of the PHY academic research and other performance determinants. Through empirical analysis and the quantitative evidence obtained, albeit preliminary, we shed light on the following issues: 1) what determines the cross-national differences in cellular network performance; 2) to what extent the PHY academic research and other factors affect cellular network performance; 3) what suggestions we can obtain from the data analysis for the stakeholders of the PHY research. To the best of our knowledge, this article is the first `empirical telecommunication research,' and the first effort to involve econometric methodologies to evaluate the usefulness of the PHY academic research.