An agent-based model of cultural change for a low-carbon transition (1.1.0)
An ABM of changes in individuals’ lifestyles which considers their evolving behavioural choices. Individuals have a set of environmental behavioural traits that spread through a fixed Watts–Strogatz graph via social interactions with their neighbours. These exchanges are mediated by transmission biases informing from whom an individual learns and how much attention is paid. The influence of individuals on each other is a function of their similarity in environmental identity, where we represent environmental identity computationally by aggregating past agent attitudes towards multiple environmentally related behaviours. To perform a behaviour, agents must both have a sufficiently positive attitude toward a behaviour and overcome a corresponding threshold. This threshold structure, where the desire to perform a behaviour does not equal its enactment, allows for a lack of coherence between attitudes and actual emissions. This leads to a disconnect between what people believe and what they do, such that the social network as whole desires greener behaviours but only a minority performs them.
Release Notes
Version 1.1 added sensitivity analysis for green influencers
Associated Publications
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.comses.net/codebases/88c233af-a3dd-4ba0-bb01-a3f5990e5ff0/releases/1.1.0