The model simulates the effects of social interaction on collective behavior regarding the reduction of the consumption of a resource. The underlying hypothesis is that key societal and psychological mechanisms that lead to environmentally sustainable lifestyles can be enabled and amplified by ICT tools. Specifically SAM4SN (Spread of Awareness Model for Social Norms) describe the role of social norms, i.e “rules governing an individual’s behavior that third parties diffusely enforce by means of social sanctions” that encourage sustainable behavior on the part of user and consumers. As enabling technology for a social norm SAM4SN identifies the advanced in-home smart metering services as key elements of a digital ecosystem. The proposed Agent-Based Model (ABM) allows the exploration of these concepts aimed at understanding the role of environmental awareness in the consumption of a scarce resource. The ABM simulates how environmental awareness spreads in a community, the impact of such individual awareness on individual consumption of a resource like energy (or water), the role of social influence in the dynamics of awareness diffusion, the role of ICT-based tools of smart metering to trigger a social norm toward sustainability. The user interface allows the user to set an initial scenario where there is a target of reduction. By running SAM4Sn in several different configurations the user can study how and when this target for environmental sustainability is reached.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.comses.net/codebases/4637/releases/1.1.0/