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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Religion

VMASC Publications

2018

Religion

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Forecasting Changes In Religiosity And Existential Security With An Agent-Based Model, Ross J. Gore, Carlos Lemos, F. Leron Shults, Wesley J. Wildman Jan 2018

Forecasting Changes In Religiosity And Existential Security With An Agent-Based Model, Ross J. Gore, Carlos Lemos, F. Leron Shults, Wesley J. Wildman

VMASC Publications

We employ existing data sets and agent-based modeling to forecast changes in religiosity and existential security among a collective of individuals over time. Existential security reflects the extent of economic, socioeconomic and human development provided by society. Our model includes agents in social networks interacting with one another based on the education level of the agents, the religious practices of the agents, and each agent's existential security within their natural and social environments. The data used to inform the values and relationships among these variables is based on rigorous statistical analysis of the International Social Survey Programme Religion Module (ISSP) …


A Generative Model Of The Mutual Escalation Of Anxiety Between Religious Groups, F. Leron Shults, Ross Gore, Wesley J. Wildman, Christopher J. Lynch, Justin E. Lane, Monica D. Toft Jan 2018

A Generative Model Of The Mutual Escalation Of Anxiety Between Religious Groups, F. Leron Shults, Ross Gore, Wesley J. Wildman, Christopher J. Lynch, Justin E. Lane, Monica D. Toft

VMASC Publications

We propose a generative agent-based model of the emergence and escalation of xenophobic anxiety in which individuals from two different religious groups encounter various hazards within an artificial society. The architecture of the model is informed by several empirically validated theories about the role of religion in intergroup conflict. Our results identify some of the conditions and mechanisms that engender the intensification of anxiety within and between religious groups. We define mutually escalating xenophobic anxiety as the increase of the average level of anxiety of the agents in both groups overtime. Trace validation techniques show that the most common conditions …