Modeling and Simulation as a Pedagogical and Heuristic Tool for Developing Theories in Cognitive Science: An Example from Ritual Competence Theory

Lane, Justin E.; Shults, F. LeRon; McCauley, Robert N.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-17090-5_8

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…This helps to explain why this methodology is increasingly being applied to issues in the scientific study of religion and nonreligion (Iannaccone 2007;Makowsky 2019;Gore et al 2018;Lane, Shults & McCauley, 2019;Shults, 2018; In one example of such an application, Lane ( 2018) used an ABM to study cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game. Agents' belief in supernatural punishment (i.e., belief that defecting in interactions with other agents will be punished) was manipulated.…”

Section: Use Of Computer Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the Effects of Religious Belief and Affiliation on Prosociality

Galen

Gore

Shults

2021

Secularism and Nonreligion

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To what extent do supernatural beliefs, group affiliation, and social interaction produce values and behaviors that benefit others, i.e., prosociality? Addressing this question involves multiple variables interacting within complex social networks that shape and constrain the beliefs and behaviors of individuals. We examine the relationships among some of these factors utilizing data from the World Values Survey to inform the construction of an Agent-Based Model. The latter was able to identify the conditions under which -and the mechanisms by which -the prosociality of simulated agents was increased or decreased within an "artificial society" designed to reflect real world parameters. The combined results indicated that prosociality was more related to agents' group affiliation and social networks than to their worldview beliefs. It also showed that prosociality changed as a function of agents' worldviews, group affiliation, and social network properties. Individuals with supernatural worldviews had higher levels of active prosociality, but this was primarily directed toward ingroup members. Naturalistic believers and the unaffiliated, on the other hand, tended to have higher levels of trust and tolerance. We describe the potential usefulness of such modeling techniques for addressing complex problems in the study of secularity and nonreligion.

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Section: Use Of Computer Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the Effects of Religious Belief and Affiliation on Prosociality

Galen

Gore

Shults

2021

Secularism and Nonreligion

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“…This kind of conceptual checking is invaluable for evaluating theories of complex phenomena of the sort studied in the field of psychology of religion. Examples of new insights or specifications of a theory being generated about theories relevant to the psychology of religion have already been found in relation to Ritual Competency Theory (see Lane et al, 2019), the Divergent Modes of Religiosity Theory (Lane & McCorkle, 2012;Lane, 2015Lane, , 2018, the Supernatural Punishment hypothesis (Lane, 2017c), cultural epidemiology (Kaše, Hampejs, & Pospíšil, 2018), social identity theory (Upal, 2015), and costly signaling theory Wildman and Sosis (2011). We don't just have to figure out somehow what we are silently assuming; the simulation process can draw our attention to some of those hidden assumptions.…”

Section: Verification Validation and Correspondencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the reference model becomes a second order representation of the referent (the referent is formulated as a system, which is then expressed as a reference model). For example, we could use Lawson and McCauley’s (1990) model of ritual to generate a systems perspective on our referent ritual (see Braxton, 2008; Lane, Shults, & McCauley, 2019). Or we could generate a system using the Whitehouse (2004; also see Whitehouse et al, 2012 and Lane, 2018, for examples), Bell (1997), Turner, Abrahams, and Harris (2017), or Rappaport (1999) models of ritual—or others, or a synthesis of several of these.…”

Section: Model Referent Abstraction and Problem Situationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Five things to know about modeling and simulation

Diallo

2019

Archive for the Psychology of Religion

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Modeling is as old as humanity. It is one of the ways in which we experience the world, teach our children, and entertain ourselves. The digital computer, on the other hand, is approximately 60 years old but as computing power increases and access to technology becomes easier, more disciplines are using statistical and computational simulations. From the humanities to social sciences, scholars are advocating for a computational branch of their field of study. This is very exciting, and we want to make sure that all disciplines stay connected and share their insights as they grow in their respective areas. Religion is a complex system that consists of humans, society, culture and social constructs that have evolved over millennia. The study of religion relies on empirical approaches to collect and analyze data to generate or validate existing theories. Modeling and simulation allows us to venture beyond statistical observation and into an exploration of the causal relationships between the different aspects of religion. It provides us with (1) the ability to understand the system as a whole, (2) the possibility of projecting how religion will evolve in the future and (3) the capability to compare, contrast and merge seemingly conflicting theories of religion. In this article, we present five critical things that scholars in psychology of religion should know about the discipline of Modeling and Simulation. The goal of this short primer is to highlight the universal aspects of Modeling and Simulation and to provide a unifying view that transcends disciplines.

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Computation of identity and social volatility in the ritual animal

Lane

2023

Religion, Brain & Behavior

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Modeling and Simulation as a Pedagogical and Heuristic Tool for Developing Theories in Cognitive Science: An Example from Ritual Competence Theory

Cited by 3 publications

References 21 publications

Modeling the Effects of Religious Belief and Affiliation on Prosociality

Modeling the Effects of Religious Belief and Affiliation on Prosociality

Five things to know about modeling and simulation

Computation of identity and social volatility in the ritual animal

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