Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 202
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-30783-2

Regular Article

Compelled to do the right thing

¹ CONICET and Centro Atómico Bariloche, R8402AGP Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina
² Instituto Balseiro, R8402AGP Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina
³ Instituto de Física, UFRGS and Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Sistemas Complexos (INCTSC), Caixa Postal 15051, 91501-970 Porto Alegre - RS, Brasil
⁴ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Economia, UFRGS, Av. João Pessoa 52, 90040-000 Porto Alegre - RS, Brasil

^a e-mail: lagunaf@cab.cnea.gov.ar
^b e-mail: abramson@cab.cnea.gov.ar
^c e-mail: roberto@if.ufrgs.br

Received: 27 August 2012
Received in final form: 17 December 2012
Published online: 2 May 2013

Abstract

We use a model of opinion formation to study the consequences of some mechanisms attempting to enforce the right behaviour in a society. We start from a model where the possible choices are not equivalent (such is the case when the agents decide to comply or not with a law) and where an imitation mechanism allow the agents to change their behaviour based on the influence of a group of partners. In addition, we consider the existence of two social constraints: (a) an external authority, called monitor, that imposes the correct behaviour with infinite persuasion and (b) an educated group of agents that act upon their fellows but never change their own opinion, i.e., they exhibit infinite adamancy. We determine the minimum number of monitors to induce an effective change in the behaviour of the social group, and the size of the educated group that produces the same effect. Also, we compare the results for the cases of random social interactions and agents placed on a network. We have verified that a small number of monitors are enough to change the behaviour of the society. This also happens with a relatively small educated group in the case of random interactions.