Simulating the Emergence of New Religious Movements

M. Afzal Upal ()
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M. Afzal Upal: http://www.eng.utoledo.edu/~aupal/

Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 2005, vol. 8, issue 1, 6

Abstract: Not unlike other social sciences, study of religion in general and study of new religious movements (NRMs) in particular, has suffered from a problem of having too many inter-related free variables and a few data points available to constrain their values. This paper suggests cognitively inspired computer modeling as a technique for exploring, refining and testing theories of religion. Although computer simulation has become a relatively accepted technique for studying social theories, it has rarely been used to study religion. To illustrate this point I describe in detail the Agent-based Information Entrepreneur Model (AIM), a computer model of the recently proposed cognitive theory of new religious movements.

Keywords: Cognitive Science of Religion; Multiagent Systems; Rational Choice Theory; New Religious Movement Emergence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-01-31
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jas:jasssj:2004-35-2

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