Fig. 1

The figure shows the schematic representation of the state change processes involved in the ABM. The interaction parameters are represented by the red arrows, while the black arrows show the spontaneous terms in the schematic. All three state-change processes are shown in the figure. First, an N-agent can initiate smoking spontaneously (\(\delta _{N \rightarrow S}\)) or due to the interaction with an S-agent (\(\beta _{N,S\rightarrow S,S}\)). Similarly, an S-agent can quit spontaneously (\(\delta _{S \rightarrow Q}\)) or due to interaction with other non-smoker agents (Q-agent: \(\beta _{S,Q \rightarrow Q,Q}\) or N-agent: \(\beta _{S,N \rightarrow Q,N}\)). Like the other processes, Q-agents relapse into smoking spontaneously (\(\delta _{Q \rightarrow S}\)) or due to interaction (\(\beta _{Q,S \rightarrow S,S}\)) with an S-agent