Diffusion

From whom and how we learn are essential components in explaining the puzzles of diffusion and belief change that underlie the transition to more sustainable practices. In this section we will introduce models of social behavior across different agent-based model configurations. The first chapter in this section introduces a general model of the diffusion of adaptations. Next, we show how models of cooperation can help us understand and predict outcomes in environmental management problems that require stakeholders to do the same behavior, using cooperation with groundwater usage limit laws within a water district as a prototypical example. Next we will present a related behavioral puzzle, that of why certain social norms like gender norms generate inequity and inequality, and point to how modeling social behavior can help us identify potential strategies for reaching more equitable equilibriums.