What questions to ask in order to validate an agent-based model? Problem presented by Dr Iqbal Adjali Unilever Problem statement There are two types of influences on consumer behaviour: global, through advertising and price setting, and local, via a network of social imitation. Unilever was most interested in knowing how to detect the presence of social imitation networks in consumer behaviour and how to extend and validate agent-based models to include social imitation. We proposed to apply recent results and managed to detect the presence of a social imitation network in a dataset of soap-buying by Swiss customers, thanks to a very simplified agent-based model. Study Group contributors Damien Challet (University of Oxford) Andreas Krause (University of Bath) Eddie Wilson (University of Bristol) Report prepared by Damien Challet (University of Oxford) Andreas Krause (University of Bath) J-1