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
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.
Key words: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2013