F. LeRon Shults

• Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan; Shults, F. LeRon; Gore, Ross & Talmont-Kaminski, Konrad (2025). The rise and fall of religion: An agent-based model of secularisation, security and prosociality. PLOS ONE. 20(11 November). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0327674. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The relationship between religion, society, and individual behaviour has been a subject of extensive inquiry, drawing upon a rich collection of historical and contemporary perspectives. The scientific study of religion at the social level has often found its roots in the foundational work of Durkheim (Durkheim, 1912), who posited that religion serves as a catalyst for social order and the promotion of prosocial behaviour. At the same time, Malinowski’s observations regarding the connection between ritual and anxiety have led to a number of lines of inquiry that have come to extend to other aspects of religion. Yet, taken together, these two approaches create friction by simultaneously linking religion to low and high levels of environmental threats and anxiety. This becomes particularly relevant in discussions of secularisation in general and existential security in particular. This study embarks on a theoretical exploration of these approaches, connecting them through an agent-based computer simulation. By linking together some of the intricate mechanisms that underlie the dynamics of religion, prosociality, and anxiety, we aim to shed light on the conditions that give rise to highly religious societies and the subsequent decline in religiosity, with a view to the significance of central institutions that ensure cooperation without recourse to religion in this complex narrative.

• Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan; Lima, Larissa Lopes; Antosz, Patrycja; Carrella, Ernesto; Iori, Elisa & Rettore, Caterina [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2025). To eat or not to Eat: Modeling food waste behavior at a hotel breakfast buffet. Cleaner and Responsible Consumption. 19. doi: 10.1016/j.clrc.2025.100333. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Food loss and waste are increasingly recognized as the outcomes of complex, interconnected social and environmental dynamics rather than isolated individual choices. In this study, we adopt a complex systems approach to explore how micro-level behaviors and interactions within commercial dining settings give rise to emergent patterns of food waste. We present an agent-based model that integrates a psychologically realistic representation of individual decision-making, grounded in the HUMAT socio-cognitive architecture. Here, artificial agents balance multiple motives — including social, experiential, and values-based drivers — while operating within a context shaped by the Motivation, Opportunities, and Abilities (MOA) framework from the social sciences. The simulated population represents diners in buffet-style environments. Individuals follow rules influenced by their motivations, opportunities, and abilities, which dictate factors such as the timing of their meal, portion sizes, frequency of servings, and amount of leftovers on their plates. Results highlight that the motives of conformism and sustainability have the strongest impact on food waste levels, with higher values drastically reducing leftovers. The model also shows that extra servings—particularly in scenarios with normal plate sizes—are strongly associated with increased waste. These findings underscore how behavioral drivers and situational constraints interact to shape food waste patterns, supporting the model's application in simulating context-sensitive interventions for promoting sustainable and responsible consumption.

• Shults, F. LeRon (2025). Simulating theory and society: How multi-agent artificial intelligence modeling contributes to renewal and critique in social theory. Theory and society. ISSN 0304-2421. 54, p. 681–703. doi: 10.1007/s11186-025-09606-6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article argues that a relatively novel methodology called multi-agent artificial intelligence modeling can play an important role in helping scholars fulfill eight desiderata for a “good” social scientific theory (conceptual clarity, logical consistency, empirical groundedness, parsimony, generativity, testability, insightfulness, and usefulness). The unique contributions of this methodology include its use of psychologically realistic agents in sociologically realistic networks that interact with each other and their simulated environment within an “artificial society.” These simulation tools utilize artificial intelligence in a way that enables scholars to causally generate the emergence of macro-level societal phenomena of interest from the micro-level behaviors and meso-level interactions of simulated agents that represent real world populations. These social digital twins can also integrate multiple social theories within a single causal architecture, providing a unique opportunity for the revolutionizing of our best theoretical frameworks.

• Shults, F. LeRon; Lane, Justin E.; Gantley, Michael John & O’Lone, Katherine (2025). Sustainable Altruism: Simulating the Future of Prosociality and Peacebuilding—A Conceptual Review. Journal of Sustainability Research (JSR). 7(2). doi: 10.20900/jsr20250033. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this article, we argue for the potential value of participatory multi-agent artificial intelligence (MAAI) modeling for addressing the pragmatic challenge of promoting a sustainable altruism among individuals and groups that will enable us to find pathways of collective action that lead toward more peaceful coexistence. Along the way, we note that this approach to modeling also addresses the scientific challenge within computer science and social simulation of creating more psychologically realistic artificial agents whose interactions occur in more realistic social networks. We identify some of the evolved cognitive and coalitional biases that make it so difficult to achieve an equilibrium of sustainable altruism in contemporary human societies, describe some of the innovative ways in which recent advances in MAAI approaches to psychological and cultural modeling open up new opportunities for simulating solutions to these challenges, and address some of the ethical issues associated with using modeling and simulating methods to help us proactively navigate the Anthropocene.

• Brouwer, Ari; Raison, Charles L. & Shults, F. LeRon (2024). The trajectory of psychedelic, spiritual, and psychotic experiences: implications for cognitive scientific perspectives on religion. Religion, Brain and Behavior. ISSN 2153-599X. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2024.2349151. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Fruitful comparison of psychedelic, spiritual, and psychotic experiences requires a degree of phenomenological nuance. Some shared features of these phenomena, such as encounters and communications with supernatural entities, are obfuscated by scientific and clinical terminology. Other supposed distinctions are based on an atemporal view of dynamic experiences. In Section 2 of this theory-building paper, we examine how the trajectory of the psilocybin mushroom experience—from aversive feelings during the comeup, to awe-inspiring peak experience, to relief and clarity in the comedown—maps onto the trajectory of spiritual and incipient psychotic experiences. In Section 3 we argue that the shared trajectory of these experiences informs cognitive scientific perspectives on religion. Specifically, we propose a causal pathway in which stress, uncertainty, and arousal increase perception of extra agency (PEA) which may lead either to physio-emotional states and beliefs that downregulate PEA or to physio-emotional states and beliefs that perpetuate PEA. In Section 4 we examine how religions could modulate the causal pathway proposed in Part 2 to promote social cohesion.

• Wildman, Wesley John; Hodulik, George & Shults, F. LeRon (2024). The Role of Values in Pandemic Management: An Agent-Based Model. JASSS : Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. 27(1). doi: 10.18564/jasss.5350. Full text in Research Archive
• Lu, Liangdong; Xu, Jia; Wei, Jiuchang & Shults, F. LeRon (2024). Quantifying the Psychological Online Communities Considering the Relationship between COVID-19-Related Threat, Information Uncertainty, and Risk Perception. Natural Hazards Review. ISSN 1527-6988. 25(3). doi: 10.1061/NHREFO.NHENG-1994. Full text in Research Archive
• Kiszkiel, Lukasz; Laskowski, Piotr Paweł; Voas, David; Bacon, Rachel J.; Wildman, Wesley John & Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2024). Dataset of Integrated Measures of Religion (DIM-R). Harmonization of religiosity data from selected international multiwave surveys. Religion, Brain and Behavior. ISSN 2153-599X. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2024.2305447. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article presents the Dataset of Integrated Measures of Religion (DIM-R), explains how it was constructed, and outlines its potential for helping to address long-standing research questions in the social scientific study of religion. DIM-R integrates four variables often used to measure religious commitment: self-declared religiosity, religious attendance, prayer, and affiliation/denominational affiliation. These variables are harmonized in four repeated cross-sectional international surveys: European Social Survey, International Social Survey Programme, European Values Study and World Values Survey. Harmonization enables cross-country and over-time comparisons in religiosity leveraging multiple data sources. Unlike the variables in the original datasets, which have different scaling and response options, DIM-R transforms them to a consistent categorization and scaling. The DIM-R dataset can assist social scientists of religion by reducing the data cleaning burden associated with integrating multiple datasets, and by increasing the statistical weight of observations across countries, time, and cohorts. To validate the DIM-R dataset, we present the exact harmonization process and examine the reliability and consistency of our analytic subset of the combined data using linear mixed models.

• Brouwer, Ari; Shults, F. LeRon & Raison, Charles (2024). From Suffering to Salvation: Making Sense of Religious Experiences. The international journal for the psychology of religion. ISSN 1050-8619. 35(1), p. 14–31. doi: 10.1080/10508619.2024.2439719. Full text in Research Archive
• Lu, Liangdong; Xu, Jia; Wei, Jiuchang; Shults, F. LeRon & Feng, Xing Lin (2024). The role of emotion and social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic phase transitions: a cross-cultural comparison of China and the United States. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 11(1), p. 1–16. doi: 10.1057/s41599-024-02744-9. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2023). Simulation, Science, and Stakeholders: Challenges and Opportunities for Modelling Solutions to Societal Problems. Complexity. ISSN 1076-2787. 2023. doi: 10.1155/2023/1375004. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The article outlines an approach to computer modelling called “human simulation,” whose development has been explicitly oriented towards addressing societal problems through transdisciplinary efforts involving stakeholders, change agents, policy professionals, subject matter experts, and computer scientists. It describes the steps involved in the creation and exploration of the “insight space” of policy-oriented artificial societies, which include both analysing societal problems and designing societal solutions. A case study is provided, based on an (ongoing) research project studying “emotional contagion” related to misinformation, stigma, and anxiety in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with lessons learned about some of the challenges and opportunities facing scientists and stakeholders trying to simulate solutions to complex societal problems.

• Bullock, Josh; Lane, Justin E.; Miklousic, Igor & Shults, F. LeRon (2023). Modeling nationalism, religiosity, and threat perception: During the COVID-19 pandemic. PLOS ONE. 18(4). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281002. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The rise of nationalism and populism in Europe has created significant political and policy challenges. Understanding and addressing these challenges will require attention to the psychological mechanisms and social dynamics that have engendered and promoted these societal shifts. This article presents the results of two new empirical studies that attempt to shed light on the relationships between nationalism, religiosity, national and religious identification, threat perception, and sentiment toward different groups. Informed by identity fusion theory and moral foundations theory, Study 1 collected and analysed survey data on these topics. Study 2 utilized the results of Study 1 to construct a system dynamics model in which causal propositions and links are added to the variables, creating an artificial society within which hypotheses about these dynamics can be tested. Both the survey and the simulation suggest that nationalism and religion are affected by the same variables. As such, religion might not be a cause of nationalism (or nationalism the cause of religion), but they could be correlated because of mutual causation.

• Laskowski, Piotr Pawel; Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan; Shults, F. LeRon & Talmont-Kaminski, Konrad (2023). A Cognitive Model of Epistemic Vigilance in Situations of Varying Competence, Consistency, and Utility. In Squazzoni, Flaminio (Eds.), Advances in Social Simulation. Proceedings of the 17th Social Simulation Conference, European Social Simulation Association.. Springer. ISSN 9783031349195. p. 13–21. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-34920-1_2. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Justin E.; McCaffree, Kevin & Shults, F. LeRon (2023). The Moral Foundations of Left-Wing Authoritarianism: On the Character, Cohesion, and Clout of Tribal Equalitarian Discourse. Journal of Cognition and Culture. ISSN 1567-7095. 23(1-2), p. 65–97. doi: 10.1163/15685373-12340153. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Left-wing authoritarianism remains far less understood than right-wing authoritarianism. We contribute to literature on the former, which typically relies on surveys, using a new social media analytic approach. We use a list of 60 terms to provide an exploratory sketch of the outlines of a political ideology – tribal equalitarianism – with origins in 19th and 20th century social philosophy. We then use analyses of the English Corpus of Google Books (n > 8 million books) and scraped unique tweets from Twitter (n = 202,582) to conduct a series of investigations to discern the extent to which this ideology is cohesive amongst the public, reveals signatures of authoritarianism and has been growing in popularity. Though exploratory, our results provide some evidence of left-wing authoritarianism in two forms: (1) a uniquely conservative signature amongst ostensible liberals using measures derived from Moral Foundations Theory and (2) a substantial prevalence of anger, relative to anxiety or sadness, in tweets analyzed for sentiment. In general, results indicate that this worldview is growing in popularity, is increasingly cohesive, and shows signatures of authoritarianism.

• Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan; Shults, F. LeRon; Gore, Ross & Talmont-Kaminski, Konrad (2023). An Agent-Based Model of Prosocial Equilibrium: The Role of Religiously Motivated Behaviour in the Formation and Maintenance of Large-Scale Societies. In Squazzoni, Flaminio (Eds.), Advances in Social Simulation. Proceedings of the 17th Social Simulation Conference, European Social Simulation Association.. Springer. ISSN 9783031349195. p. 61–73. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-34920-1_6. Full text in Research Archive
• Rybnik, Mariusz; Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan; Shults, F. LeRon; Dabrowska-Prokopowska, Ewa & Talmont-Kaminski, Konrad (2023). An Agent-Based Model of the Role of Epistemic Vigilance in Human Cooperation. In Squazzoni, Flaminio (Eds.), Advances in Social Simulation. Proceedings of the 17th Social Simulation Conference, European Social Simulation Association.. Springer. ISSN 9783031349195. p. 75–86. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-34920-1_7. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2023). Religion devolving? When shared ritual engagement with supernatural agents becomes maladaptive. Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion. ISSN 2049-7555. doi: 10.1558/jcsr.23578. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article highlights several of the valuable contributions in Religion Evolving by Benjamin Purzycki and Richard Sosis (2022) and offers some material and methodological reflections that are intended to complement their efforts. Their book offers a clear and useful operationalization of religion, emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to the phenomena in question, and makes great strides in overcoming the polarizing debate between proponents of the “by-product” and “adaptationist” camps in the cognitive and evolutionary science of religion. The bulk of the current article argues for the importance of building on their efforts by also attending to the conditions under which – and the mechanisms by which – religion can become “maladaptive” in contemporary contexts.

• Shults, Fount LeRon & Wildman, Wesley John (2023). The methodological naturalism and methodological secularism scale: Shedding new light on scholarship in religion. Bulletin for the Study of Religion. ISSN 2041-1863. 51(3-4), p. 92–102. doi: 10.1558/bsor.23700. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Scholars within and across fields such as the psychology of religion, sociology of religion, cognitive science of religion, religious studies, and theology often argue about the values and norms that ought to guide “academic” research in religion. Is it appropriate in the academy to explain religious phenomena by referring to supernatural forces (such as spirits or gods) as causal agents or to defend one’s scholarly arguments by appealing to the holy texts accepted as authoritative within one’s religious coalition? Debates surrounding such questions have remained intractable for decades in part because they have been based on anecdotal personal experiences rather than clear empirical data. This article presents the Methodological Naturalism-Methodological Secularism scale, a new survey instrument capable of moving forward debates about scholarly values in the academic study of religion. This initial deployment of the MNMS scale in a population of religion scholars (N=284) clarifies extant commitments, challenges common caricatures, and reveals unfamiliar configurations of academic values.

• Talmont-Kaminski, Konrad & Shults, Fount LeRon (2023). Modern religion as vestigial structure: an evolutionary account of secularisation. Religion. ISSN 0048-721X. doi: 10.1080/0048721X.2023.2289421. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article offers a new solution to a theoretical problem facing scholars attempting to interpret religion and secularisation in light of biological evolution. Some scholars argue that the diversity of religious beliefs and rituals in contemporary societies is compatible with secularisation or even facilitates it by weakening the plausibility structures of any one religion. Other scholars argue that religious diversity is not evidence of a decrease in interest in religion but rather shows the ingenuity of religious entrepreneurs. Here we extend the former school of thought by outlining a theory of the vestigilisation of religion. We describe three key characteristics of vestigial structures (increasing variability, decreasing costliness and the appearance of novel functions) and identify shifts in these characteristics in some religious traits. We argue that this supports the idea that religious diversity is a predictable effect of secularisation.

• Tolk, Andreas; Richkus, Jennifer A.; Shults, F. LeRon & Wildman, Wesley John (2023). Computational Decision Support for Socio-Technical Awareness of Land-Use Planning under Complexity—A Dam Resilience Planning Case Study. Land. 12(5). doi: 10.3390/land12050952. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Land-use planning for modern societies requires technical competence as well as social competence. We therefore propose an integrative solution enabling better land-use planning and management through better-informed decision-making. We adapt a method developed for crossdisciplinary team building to identify the stakeholders and their various objectives and value systems. We use these results to populate artificial societies embedded into a dynamic data analytics framework as a tool to identify, explore, and visualize the challenges resulting from the different objectives and value systems in land-use planning and management. To prove the feasibility of the proposed solution, we present two use cases from the dam resilience planning domain, show how to apply the process and tools, and present the results. The solution is not limited to such use cases but can be generalized to address challenges in socio-technical systems, such as water resource evaluations or climate change effects.

• Bacon, Rachel J.; Bjerknes, Elly Cathrin Svendsen; Skipitaris, Philip; Sherwood-Walter, Madison A.; Shults, Laura A. & Shults, F. LeRon (2023). The Norwegian Memory Tasks: Using Pensioner Auto-Biographies to Study Religion in a Secularizing Country. Review of religious research. ISSN 0034-673X. 65(3), p. 374–392. doi: 10.1177/0034673X231208695. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Declining traditional religious practice and beliefs have been observed in Norwegian survey data since the mid-twentieth century. Individual-level data before that time, when higher religiosity may have been more normative, is lacking. We introduce a unique autobiographic database consisting of 1270 digitized entries written by Norwegian pensioners in 1964 and 1981, called “Memory Tasks,” and assess its potential to study religion in the daily lives of Norwegians. We sample from the Memory Tasks (n = 45), and code religion mentions falling into six categories: identity, public participation, private practice, personal importance of religion, supernatural worldview, and miscellaneous mentions. We report the frequency of each category and present excerpts to highlight the depth of available information on religion. Nearly all Memory Tasks from our sample included at least one mention of religion. The most common categories are identity, public participation, and miscellaneous religious activities such as Christmas celebrations. Selected excerpts describe confirmation requirements, religious activities and social life, revivals, and folk beliefs. The Memory Task data can extend our understanding of individual-level perspectives on religion in Norway for a time period when survey data is unavailable. We invite other researchers to design studies using this data source.

• Antosz, Patrycja; Shults, Fount LeRon; Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan & Szczepanska, Timo Roman (2023). HUM-e: An Emotive-Socio-cognitive Agent Architecture for Representing Human Decision-Making in Anxiogenic Contexts. In Squazzoni, Flaminio (Eds.), Advances in Social Simulation. Proceedings of the 17th Social Simulation Conference, European Social Simulation Association.. Springer. ISSN 9783031349195. p. 235–247. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-34920-1_19. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper introduces HUM-e emotive-socio-cognitive decision-making architecture of human agents. The HUM-e is an extension of the HUMAT architecture representing socially influenced decision-making. The new architecture was designed to be used in contexts where fear and social identity play significant roles in attitude formation. Crucially, we propose that fear changes the goal of information exchange between interlocutors and influences the persuasiveness of information sources in face-to-face communication. The development of HUM-e was theoretically inspired by emotional contagion theory, identity fusion theory, and social identity theory.

• Kosnáč, Pavol; Lane, Justin E.; Toft, Monica Duffy & Shults, F. LeRon (2023). Paramilitaries, parochialism, and peace: The moral foundations and personality traits of SlovenskíBranci. PLOS ONE. 18(3). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281503. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Paramilitary organizations have increasingly become a cause for concern among policy makers and the media in recent years, in part because the former are often seen as a potential threat to peace (or at least to the status quo of the current political systems) in the countries in which they emerge. Organizations such as the Oathkeepers and 3 Percenters (also known as III%ers) in the United States have grown significantly in the last two decades, while paramilitary organizations playing a key role in both offensive and defensive actions in Crimea and the Donbas Region have become a focus of discussion in the Russian war on Ukraine. Although they have not always garnered as much attention, paramilitary organizations in Central and Eastern Europe have a long history. While most are relatively inactive, others play a wide variety of active roles, sometimes even running operations in parallel with a state’s official armed forces (e.g., the PMO serving the state in Poland, or the Night Wolves helping Russia capture Crimea). Despite the increase in the number and activity of these paramilitary organizations, little is known about the personal, social, moral, and psychological background of the individuals who join them. After reviewing the history and ideology of the largest paramilitary organization in the Slovak Republic, this article presents and discusses the results of a survey administered to the group. This survey used different measures of personality, morality, and identity, as well as information about respondents’ personal background, family history, socio-economic status, and political ideology. We find significant relationships between certain individual personality traits and the importance of certain moral foundations among members of these organizations in relation to their broader social community.

• Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan; Voas, David; Kiszkiel, Lukasz; Bacon, Rachel J.; Wildman, Wesley John & Talmont-Kaminski, Konrad [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2022). Modeling Fuzzy Fidelity: Using Microsimulation to Explore Age, Period, and Cohort Effects in Secularization. Journal of Religion and Demography. ISSN 2589-7411. 9(1-2), p. 111–137. doi: 10.1163/2589742x-bja10012. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article presents a microsimulation that explores age, period, and cohort effects in the decline of religiosity in contemporary societies. The model implements a well-known and previously empirically validated theory of secularization that highlights the role of “fuzzy fidelity,” i.e., the percentage of a population whose religiosity is moderate (Voas 2009). Validation of the model involved comparing its simulation results to shifts in religiosity over 9 waves of the European Social Survey. Simulation experiments suggest that a cohort effect, based on weakened transmission of religiosity as a function of the social environment, appears to be the best explanation for secularization in the societies studied, both for the population as a whole and for the proportions of religious, fuzzy, and secular people.

• Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). Theory and data in a computational model of secularization. Bulletin for the Study of Religion. ISSN 2041-1863. Full text in Research Archive
• Xanthopoulou, Themis Dimitra; Prinz, Andreas & Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). The Problem with Bullying: Lessons Learned from Modelling Marginalization with Diverse Stakeholders. In Czupryna, Marcin & Kamiński, Bogumił (Ed.), Advances in Social Simulation. Proceedings of the 16th Social Simulation Conference, 20–24 September 2021. Springer Nature. ISSN 9783030928438. p. 289–300. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-92843-8_22. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  While building a simulation model to gain insights on bullying interventions, we encountered challenging issues that forced us to reconsider the concepts we model. We learned lessons about the need for quality assurance and a more demanding construction process when building models that aim to support decision making. One of the lessons is that even academically accepted concepts such as “bullying” can be ambiguous. Experts and interested parties do not agree about how to define and use the term bullying. Indeed, before we can model “bullying”, we need a shared understanding, of its meaning. Otherwise, insights from the model could be misinterpreted and lead to misleading conclusions. Concepts are inherently imprecise and contain grey areas. Although this may be true, not all of them are ambiguous. For the scope of this paper, ambiguity implies that the same word is used to point to different concepts. For different reasons, bullying has evolved to point to different concepts for different people and sometimes even for the same person. We propose to solve these challenges by identifying which concrete bullying behaviors to target, and by focusing on simulation models for interventions addressing those behaviors.

• Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). Introduction to the Work of Wesley J. Wildman. In Shults, F. LeRon & Neville, Robert Cummings (Ed.), Religion in Multidisciplinary Perspective : Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Approaches to Wesley J. Wildman. SUNY Press. ISSN 9781438487410. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Justin E.; Wildman, Wesley John & Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). Paying the piper: History, humanities, and the scientific study of religion. Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. ISSN 0943-3058. 35, p. 73–86. doi: 10.1163/15700682-bja10081. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Here we respond to a recent article in this journal by Leonardo Ambasciano, in which he offers a high-level critique of “big data,” artificial intelligence, and computational approaches in the study of religion. The main thrust of his argument is that these approaches are fundamentally problematic both because of their negative effect on the humanities and because they inappropriately rely on “neoliberal philanthrocapitalist” funding. In our response, we refer to our experience working with computational scientists and humanities scholars in collaborative teams, where they stand shoulder to shoulder in equal collaboration with one another, each side relying on the distinctive value that the other provides as they attempt to create clearer and more valid descriptions, analyses, and explanations of complex human behaviors. We correct several errors of fact in Ambasciano’s article, focusing first on ideological and ethical issues and then on methodological and epistemological issues. We conclude by emphasizing several points on which we agree with his assessment.

• Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan & Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). Generation gaps: An agent-based model of opinion shifts among cohorts. In Czupryna, Marcin & Kamiński, Bogumił (Ed.), Advances in Social Simulation. Proceedings of the 16th Social Simulation Conference, 20–24 September 2021. Springer Nature. ISSN 9783030928438. p. 233–245. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-92843-8_18. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper presents the findings of an agent-based model of the shift toward liberal opinions over time within contemporary European populations. Empirical findings and theoretical reflection on this sort of shift suggest that cohort effects, and especially changes in the opinions of teenagers, are a primary driver of liberalization at the population level. We outline the core features and dynamics of the model and report on several optimization experiments that clarify the conditions under which—and the mechanisms by which—opinions become more liberal as agents interact with one another within and across cohorts.

• Shults, Fount LeRon; J, Wildman Wesley; Duffy, Toft Monica & Antje, Danielson (2022). Artificial Societies in the Anthropocene: Challenges and Opportunities for Modeling Climate, Conflict, and Coooperation. Winter simulation conference : proceedings. ISSN 0891-7736. Full text in Research Archive
• Antosz, Patrycja; Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan; Shults, Fount LeRon; Lane, Justin E. & Normann, Roger Henning (2022). Documenting Data Use in a Model of Pandemic “Emotional Contagion” Using the Rigour and Transparency Reporting Standard (RAT-RS). In Czupryna, Marcin & Kamiński, Bogumił (Ed.), Advances in Social Simulation. Proceedings of the 16th Social Simulation Conference, 20–24 September 2021. Springer Nature. ISSN 9783030928438. p. 439–451. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-92843-8_33. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper utilizes the recently developed Rigour and Transparency Reporting Standard as a framework for describing aspects of the use of data in an agent-based modelling (ABM) EmotiCon project studying emotional contagion during the COVID-19 pandemic. After briefly summarizing the role of the ABM in the wider EmotiCon project, we outline how we intend to utilize qualitative data from a natural language processing analysis of Twitter data and quantitative data from a nationally representative survey in model building. The presentation during the SSC 2021 will elaborate on the outcome of implementing the idea.

• Andreas, Tolk; E, Lane Justine; Shults, Fount LeRon & J, Wildman Wesley (2022). Panel of Ethical Constraints on Validation, Verification, and Application of Simulation. Winter simulation conference : proceedings. ISSN 0891-7736. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). The Model(ing) Philosophy of Wesley Wildman. In Shults, F. LeRon & Neville, Robert Cummings (Ed.), Religion in Multidisciplinary Perspective : Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Approaches to Wesley J. Wildman. SUNY Press. ISSN 9781438487410. Full text in Research Archive
• Taves, Ann; Wildman, Wesley J.; Shults, Fount LeRon & Paloutzian, Raymond F. (2022). Scholarly values, methods, and evidence in the academic study of religion. Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. ISSN 0943-3058. 34(4), p. 378–406. doi: 10.1163/15700682-bja10073. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The Values in Scholarship on Religion (VISOR) project collected data on the preferred methods and values of scholars in the academic study of religion. This dataset supports comparisons between members of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and partner organizations, such as the North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR), as well as members of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR). The AAR-partner sample differs from the SSSR sample in consistently preferring humanities over empirical approaches. Both samples were modestly aligned with the secular academy in rejecting theological claims as evidence. The subgroups within the AAR-partner sample that were affiliated with the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) were the most firmly committed to secular approaches and evidence. These findings indicate the range of perspectives currently present in the big-tent AAR, which deliberately embraces theological scholarship as well as secular religious studies research.

• Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan; Bacon, Rachel J.; Voas, David; Shults, F. LeRon; Hodulik, George & Wildman, Wesley J. (2022). Adapting Cohort-Component Methods to a Microsimulation: A case study. Social science computer review. ISSN 0894-4393. 40(4), p. 1054–1068. doi: 10.1177/08944393221082685. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Social scientists generally take United Nations (UN) population projections as the baseline when considering the potential impact of any changes that could affect fertility, mortality or migration, and the UN typically does projections using the cohort-component method (CCM). The CCM technique is computationally simple and familiar to demographers. However, in order to avoid the exponential expansion of complexity as new dimensions of individual difference are added to projections, and to understand the sensitivity of projections to specific conditions, agent-based microsimulations are a better option. CCMs can mask hidden assumptions that are surfaced by the construction of microsimulations, and varying such assumptions can lead to quite different projections. CCM models are naturally the strongest form of validation for population projection microsimulations but there are many complexities and difficulties associated with matching microsimulation projections and CCM projections. Here, we describe our efforts to tackle these challenges as we validated a microsimulation for Norway by replicating a UN CCM projection. This provides guidance for other simulationists who seek to use CCMs to validate microsimulations. More importantly, it demonstrates the value of microsimulations for surfacing assumptions that frequently lie hidden, and thus unevaluated, within CCM projections.

• Bullock, Josh; Lane, Justin E. & Shults, F. LeRon (2022). What causes COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy? Ignorance and the lack of bliss in the United Kingdom. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 9. doi: 10.1057/s41599-022-01092-w. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Understanding vaccine hesitancy has become increasingly important during the COVID-19 pandemic as governments around the globe have been struggling to convince portions of their populations to participate in vaccination protocols. Here we report on a nationally representative survey of the United Kingdom in which data revealed that individuals showed more willingness to take fictitious vaccines (putatively produced by the US government Medicare program and the now defunct healthcare company Theranos) than to take the Sputnik and Sinovac vaccines (developed by the Russian and Chinese governments respectively). The data indicate that the critical factor in vaccine hesitancy among the respondents was anxiety rather than familiarity with vaccines.

• E., Lane Justin & Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). The Computational Science of Religion. In Geertz, Armin W.; Ambasciano, Leonardo; Eidinow, Esther; Martin, Luther H.; Nielbo, Kristoffer Laigaard; Mulukom, Valerie van; Roubekas, Nikolas & Xygalatas, Dimitris (Ed.), Studying the Religious Mind: Methodology in the Cognitive Science of Religion. Equinox Publishing. ISSN 9781800501614. doi: 10.1558/equinox.43021. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter provides a basic overview of the most common methods of computer modelling and simulation that are currently being used to study religion. It focuses on the use (and illustrates the value) of system dynamics models, agent-based models, including game theory and multi-agent artificial intelligence models, and artificial neural networks. General use case examples are provided, and considerations for future research are discussed. We conclude by encouraging scholars interested in religion and related fields to incorporate techniques from the computational science of religion into their collaborative methodological toolkits.

• Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). Studying close entity encounters of the psychedelic kind: Insights from the cognitive evolutionary science of religion. The international journal for the psychology of religion. ISSN 1050-8619. doi: 10.1080/10508619.2022.2078591. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article calls for a more robust mutual engagement between the science of psychedelic experiences (SPE) and the cognitive evolutionary science of religion (CESR). Greater collaboration between researchers in these disciplines could open up opportunities for producing new knowledge not only about the human brain and the therapeutic effects of psychedelics, but also about the evolution of our species and our prospects for creatively enjoying our minds and peacefully living in pluralistic groups in a rapidly changing global environment. However, there are at least three major challenges facing the recently renewed field of SPE: 1) articulating adequate theoretical grounding for its research in a way that can be communicated to neighbor disciplines, 2) developing experimental designs that provide adequate warrant for its cross-cultural and more historically oriented claims, and 3) avoiding psychological, political, and philosophical minefields that could lead to an (over)reaction to the use of psychedelics in research of the sort that almost destroyed the field in the 1970s. While expressing a hope for reciprocal interaction, this article focuses primarily on some lessons learned by scholars in CESR – in relation to material theoretical developments, methodological testing strategies, and minefield navigation experiences – that might provide inspiration for scholars in SPE as they work to keep the renaissance in their field from going “off the rails.”

• Shults, Fount LeRon & Wildman, Wesley John (2022). Field of Dreams: What do NAASR Scholars Really Want, On the Subject of Religion - Charting the Fault Lines of a Field of Study. Equinox Publishing. ISSN 9781800502284. p. 195–207. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2021). Progress in simulating human geography: Assemblage theory and the practice of multi-agent artificial intelligence modeling. Progress in Human Geography. ISSN 0309-1325. 46(1), p. 108–120. doi: 10.1177/03091325211059567. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Over the last few years, there has been an explosion of interest in assemblage theory among human geographers. During this same period, a growing number of scholars in the field have utilized computational methodologies to simulate the complex adaptive systems they study. However, very little attention has been paid to the connections between these two developments. This article outlines those connections and argues that more explicitly integrating assemblage theory and computer modeling can encourage a more robust philosophical understanding of both and facilitate progress in scientific research on the ways in which complex socio-material systems form and transform.

• Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan & Shults, F. LeRon (2021). InCREDulity in artificial societies. In Ahrweiler, Petra & Neumann, Martin H.D (Ed.), Advances in Social Simulation - Proceedings of the 15th Social Simulation Conference: 23–27 September 2019. Springer. ISSN 9783030615031. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-61503-1_8. Full text in Research Archive
• Paloutzian, Raymond F.; Sagir, Zeynep & Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Modeling reconciliation and peace processes: Lessons from Syrian war refugees and World War II. In Clements, Kevin P. & Lee, SungYong (Ed.), Multi-Level Reconciliation and Peacebuilding: Stakeholder Perspectives. Routledge. ISSN 9780367862312. p. 225–242. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This edited volume examines the group dynamics of social reconciliation in conflict-affected societies by adopting ideas developed in social psychology and the everyday peace discourse in peace and conflict studies. The book revisits the intra- and inter-group dynamics of social reconciliation in conflict-affected societies, which have been largely marginalised in mainstream peacebuilding debates. By applying social psychological perspectives and the discourse of everyday peace, the chapters explore the everyday experience of community actors engaged in social and political reconciliation. The first part of the volume introduces conceptual and theoretical studies that focus on the pros and cons of state-level reconciliation and their outcomes, while presenting theoretical insights into dialogical processes upon which reconciliation studies can develop further. The second part presents a series of empirical case studies from around the world, which examine the process of social reconciliation at community levels through the lens of social psychology and discourse analysis. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, social psychology, discourse analysis and international relations in general.

• Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Simulating secularities: Challenges and opportunities in the computational science of (non)religion. Secularism and Nonreligion. 10(10). doi: 10.5334/snr.154. Full text in Research Archive
• Wildman, Wesley J.; Shults, Fount LeRon & Diallo, Saikou (2021). Computational demography of religion: A proposal. In Ahrweiler, Petra & Neumann, Martin H.D (Ed.), Advances in Social Simulation - Proceedings of the 15th Social Simulation Conference: 23–27 September 2019. Springer. ISSN 9783030615031. p. 169–180. Full text in Research Archive
• Cragun, Ryan; McCaffree, Kevin; Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan; Wildman, Wesley & Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Religious exiting and social networks: Computer simulations of religious/secular pluralism. Secularism and Nonreligion. 10(2). doi: 10.5334/snr.129. Full text in Research Archive
• Galen, Luke; Gore, Ross & Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Modeling the effects of religious belief and affiliation on prosociality. Secularism and Nonreligion. 10(1). doi: 10.5334/snr.128. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon & McCaffree, Kevin (2021). Distributive effervescence: Emotional energy and social cohesion in secularizing societies. Theory and society. ISSN 0304-2421. doi: 10.1007/s11186-021-09470-0. Full text in Research Archive
• Wildman, Wesley J.; Shults, F. LeRon & Diallo, Saikou Y. (2021). Computational Demography of Religion: A Proposal. In Ahrweiler, Petra & Neumann, Martin H.D (Ed.), Advances in Social Simulation - Proceedings of the 15th Social Simulation Conference: 23–27 September 2019. Springer. ISSN 9783030615031. p. 169–180. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-61503-1_16. Full text in Research Archive
• Diallo, Saikou; Shults, F. LeRon & Wildman, Wesley J. (2020). Minding morality: ethical artificial societies for public policy modeling. AI & Society: Knowledge, Culture and Communication. ISSN 0951-5666. doi: 10.1007/s00146-020-01028-5. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Public policies are designed to have an impact on particular societies, yet policy-oriented computer models and simulations often focus more on articulating the policies to be applied than on realistically rendering the cultural dynamics of the target society. This approach can lead to policy assessments that ignore crucial social contextual factors. For example, by leaving out distinctive moral and normative dimensions of cultural contexts in artificial societies, estimations of downstream policy effectiveness fail to account for dynamics that are fundamental in human life and central to many public policy challenges. In this paper, we supply evidence that incorporating morally salient dimensions of a culture is critically important for producing relevant and accurate evaluations of social policy when using multi-agent artificial intelligence models and simulations.

• Homme, Gro Anita & Shults, Fount LeRon (2020). The Shaping of the Self: Patterns and Pathways in Bowlby, Kohut, and Bowen. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT. ISSN 0814-723X. 41(4). doi: 10.1002/anzf.1428. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article offers a heuristic framework that links several key aspects of the psychological models of John Bowlby, Heinz Kohut, and Murray Bowen, generating insight into an underlying set of isomorphic patterns in the shaping and reshaping of the self. This theoretical matrix of interlocking perspectives can facilitate our understanding of the formation – and promote the transformation – of selves as they engage within their familial and social worlds. The first section introduces some of these three authors’ key theoretical and therapeutic contributions and provides our rationale for linking some of their ideas and intervention strategies. The second section offers a brief review of earlier attempts at partial integration of these theories and describes the distinctiveness of our proposal. The third section outlines our proposed heuristic framework, which identifies some of the underlying structural similarities in the formation of the self, described in different ways and with varying emphases by these three scholars. Finally, we briefly explore some of the implications of the model for producing clinical insights into distinctive pathways for the transformation of the self.

• Xanthopoulou, Themis Dimitra; Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan; Shults, F. LeRon & Prinz, Andreas (2020). Modeling Marginalization: Emergence, Social Physics, and Social Ethics of Bullying, Proceedings of the 2020 Spring Simulation Conference (SpringSim’20). IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). ISSN 9781565553705. doi: 10.22360/SpringSim.2020.HSAA.005. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this paper, we outline the construction and initial simulation experiment results of the Marginalization model (MARG). We experiment under different group parameters because the theoretical paradigm we follow views bullying as a result of social processes. Our primary research question explores the possibility of bullying emergence as agents select interaction partners in a university setting. Based on the simulated process, our results take indications of the stress of marginalization in a student group as a proxy for emer-gent marginalization. MARG simulates two types of interactions between pairs of students: forced and hang-out interactions. In the latter, students decide whether to interact based on individual preferences formed by social norms and individual tolerance related to those norms. The emergence of intensified mar-ginalization from MARG processes leads to some ethical considerations and provides ground for discus-sions concerning suitable interventions.

• Shults, Fount LeRon; Wildman, Wesley J.; Diallo, Saikou; Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan & Voas, David (2020). The Artificial Society Analytics Platform. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. ISSN 2213-8684. p. 411–426. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-34127-5_42. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Social simulation routinely involves the construction of artificial societies and agents within such societies. Currently there is insufficient discussion of best practices regarding the construction process. This chapter introduces the artificial society analytics platform (ASAP) as a way to spark discussion of best practices. ASAP is designed to be an extensible architecture capable of functioning as the core of many different types of inquiries into social dynamics. Here we describe ASAP, focusing on design decisions in several key areas, thereby exposing our assumptions and reasoning to critical scrutiny, hoping for discussion that can advance debate over best practices in artificial society construction. The five design decisions are related to agent characteristics, neighborhood interactions, evaluating agent credibility, agent marriage, and heritability of personality.

• Shults, Fount LeRon & Gore, Ross (2020). Modeling Radicalization and Violent Extremism. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. ISSN 2213-8684. p. 405–410. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-34127-5_41. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Given public anxiety about radicalization and violent extremism, it is not surprising that these topics have grabbed the attention of so many scholars in recent years. However, some have expressed concern over the fact that only a few studies in this relatively new field contain empirical data or systematic data analysis or develop causal models of the mechanisms generating these phenomena. We believe that computational modeling and simulation techniques can make a significant contribution to this scientific literature and eventually provide new tools for improving policy analysis. Here we briefly describe (1) an integrative theory of violent extremism proposed by Kruglanski and colleagues and (2) an agent-based model that instantiates this theory in a computational architecture.

• Shults, Fount LeRon (2020). Evolutionary ethics and adaptive atheism. Religion, Brain and Behavior. ISSN 2153-599X. 11(1), p. 90–98. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2020.1787216. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In Evolution Science and Ethics in the Third Millennium (2018), whose key arguments are summa­rized in the target article above, Cliquet and Avramov offer an exacting and extensive analysis of the ethical and ecological challenges and psychological and political choices ahead for the human species. They bravely tackle a host of touchy issues and, in light of empirical findings and theoretical developments within a wide variety of scientific disciplines, courageously offer their own construc­tive proposals. Some of the latter (such as those dealing with eugenics and euthenics) will no doubt generate fresh anxiety about genetic and social engineering, while others (such as those dealing with modernization and hominization) will fuel worries about scientism or elitism. Although these con­cerns should lead us to be cautious, the authors remind us that we ought to be at least as concerned about ways in which the well-being of future generations could be threatened by our failure to act and our unwillingness to contest maladaptive cognitive and coalitional biases.

• Xanthopoulou, Themis Dimitra; Prinz, Andreas; Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan & Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Modeling marginalization: Emergence, social physics, and social ethics of bullying. Simulation Series. ISSN 0735-9276. 52(1), p. 452–463. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Computing consilience: How modeling and simulation can contribute to worldview studies. In Larsson, Göran (Eds.), Building Blocks of Religion. Equinox Publishing. ISSN 9781781798669. p. 101–112. Full text in Research Archive
• Vos, Pauline; Dallas, Markos; Poudel, Amrit Bahadur & Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Using Social Simulations in Interdisciplinary Primary Education - an Expert Appraisal. In Verhagen, Harko; Borit, Melania; Bravo, Giangiacomo & Wijermans, Nanda (Ed.), Advances in Social Simulation. Looking in the Mirror. Springer Nature. ISSN 9783030341268. p. 451–456. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-34127-5_45. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Many people recognize that teaching basic skills in primary schools (reading, writing, and arithmetic) is no longer sufficient for pupils in the digital age. Therefore, governments now increasingly ask schools to add other skills (oral, digital) and to create connections between subjects (e.g., use mathematics in history lessons). In this study, we explored how social simulations can be used in primary education to meet these new goals. We conducted an expert appraisal (a qualitative Delphi method) with four experts specializing in innovating primary education. We selected three simulations that were freely available on the web, relevant for pupils’ lives and had a limited number of parameters. They dealt with segregation, gossip spread and population dynamics. We asked the experts to critically discuss these. Afterward, we analyzed the videotaped discussions in terms of affordances and constraints. The results showed that the affordances of social simulations include their broad appeal to students and their capacity to help users explore relevant concerns through an integrative approach (e.g., interpreting graphs, reasoning with parameters, predicting). Also, the experts warned that social simulations can touch on ethical issues that might be stressful for some pupils. If well-orchestrated, the use of social simulations has great potential to fulfill the new primary school goals.

• Poudel, Amrit Bahadur; Vos, Pauline & Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Students of Religion Studying Social Conflict through Simulation and Modelling - An Exploration. In Verhagen, Harko; Borit, Melania; Bravo, Giangiacomo & Wijermans, Nanda (Ed.), Advances in Social Simulation. Looking in the Mirror. Springer Nature. ISSN 9783030341268. p. 379–383. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-34127-5_37. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Toxic theisms? New strategies for prebunking religious belief-behaviour complexes. Journal of Cognitive Historiography. ISSN 2051-9672. doi: 10.1558/jch.38074. Full text in Research Archive

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• Shults, F. LeRon & Neville, Robert Cummings (2022). Religion in Multidisciplinary Perspective : Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Approaches to Wesley J. Wildman. SUNY Press. ISBN 9781438487410. 342 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Soares, Marta Bruno; Lamb, Gavin; Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan; Baulenas, Eulàlia; Pickard, Sam & Shults, F. LeRon [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2024). Current landscape of knowledge networks for climate change adaptation in Europe. doi: 10.5194/ems2024-1048. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The complex and interconnected nature of climate change together and the need to adapt to such changes demands for collective efforts, expertise, and resources across a range of actors and scales of action (Bidwell et al., 2013). In this context, knowledge networks can be defined as "A set of nodes — individuals or group of individuals heterogeneously distributed that serve as agents for storing, creating and sharing knowledge on climate change adaptation — interconnected by social relationships that enable and constrain the nodes’ efforts to acquire, transfer, create and act upon such knowledge" (adapted from Phelps, 2012). Depending on their nature and scope, these knowledge networks can operate in multiple ways towards advancing and promoting climate change adaptation efforts e.g. by facilitating the exchange and creation of knowledge and ideas, mobilization of resources, fostering collaborations, social learning, and connecting different levels of governance (Pugh and Prusak, 2013). In addition, these knowledge networks can also support a range of efforts such as informing policy, raising awareness, enhancing social learning, guiding business-related advocacy and assist social activism (Bremer et al., 2022). However, current knowledge of these types of networks operating in Europe is limited. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic literature review to understand the landscape of these networks in Europe in order to gain insights into key typologies, their role in supporting adaptation across a range of (often interconnected) scales of action, their governance structures, and the use of climate information in their adaptation-related efforts. Based on the inclusion/exclusion criteria adopted, we identified approximately 40 knowledge networks covering a range of areas of intervention, scales of operation as well as different types of actors involved. This paper will present the findings from our analysis providing new insights into the current landscape of these networks and how they operate and interact to support adaptation efforts in Europe. By doing so, the paper constitutes a key contribution to ongoing discussions on how to improve and maximise adaptation efforts across scales, actors and typologies of interventions in Europe.

• Shults, Fount LeRon & Talmont-Kaminski, Konrad (2023). Superstition in the cognitive model: Modelling ritualised behaviour as error management. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon & Talmont-Kaminski, Konrad (2023). The rise and fall of religion: A model-based exploration of secularisation, security, and prosociality. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). Minding Culture. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). Atheisms, atheologies, naturalistic theologies, and religious naturalisms. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). Modeling error management theory. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). Art and Artificial Intelligence. Full text in Research Archive
• Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan & Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). A cognitive model of epistemic vigilance. Full text in Research Archive
• Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan & Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). An agent-based model of the role of epistemic vigilance in human cooperation. Full text in Research Archive
• Antosz, Patrycja & Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). An emotive-socio cognitive agent architecture for representing human decision-making in anxiogenic contexts. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon & Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan (2022). An agent-based modle of prosocial equilibrium theory. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). Modeling Fuzzy Fidelity Theory. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2022). Are there any Winners in the Information Wars? Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Computer modeling of (non)religion: Pragmatic implications. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Theory integration in social simulation. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Qualitative methods and data in social simulation. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Close entity encounters of the psychedelic kind: Insights and inspiration from the evolutionary psychology of religion. Full text in Research Archive
• Antosz, Patrycja; Shults, Fount LeRon; Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan; Lane, Justin E. & Normann, Roger Henning (2021). Documenting data use in a model of pandemic 'emotional contagion' using the Rigour and Transparency Reporting Standard (RAT-RS). Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Modeling religion, ideology, and prosociality. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Justin E. & Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Flattening the Emotional Curve with New AI systems: Computer Simulation as a Tool for Policymakers and Stakeholders in Times of Crisis. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Commentary on Hogue's Political Theology. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Strategy for simulating emotional contagion. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Using multi-agent AI to predict and prevent religious conflict. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon & Puga-Gonzalez, Ivan (2021). Young liberals? An agent-based model of opinion shifts among cohorts. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Advanced computational approaches. In Stausberg, Michael & Engler, Steven (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion. Routledge. ISSN 9781032119823. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon (2021). Artificial societies in the Anthropocene: Challenges and opportunities for modeling climate, conflict, and cooperation. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, Fount LeRon; Wildman, Wesley & Lane, Justin E. (2021). Ethical constraints on validation, verification, and application of simulation. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Introduction to Modeling Prosociality. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Emotional Contagion: Predicting and Preventing the Spread of Misinformation, Stigma, and Fear during a Pandemic. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Ethics and Artificial Intelligence. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Introduction to Modeling Secularization. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon; Wildman, Wesley J. & Taves, Ann (2020). What do we, as scholars of religion, value? Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon & Xanthopoulou, Themis Dimitra (2020). Modeling Marginalization: The emergence, social physics, and social ethics of bullying. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon & Wildman, Wesley J. (2020). Artificial Social Ethics. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Data and Theory in a Computational Model of Secularization. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Morality and Causality in Artificial Societies. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Introducing the EmotiCon Project. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Simulating Assemblages and Fields. Full text in Research Archive
• Shults, F. LeRon (2020). Emotional Contagion: The Spread of Misinformation, Stigma, and Fear during a Pandemic. Full text in Research Archive
• Kharchenko, Yuliya; Miskuf, Robert; Antosz, Patrycja; Shults, F. LeRon; Rousseau, Markus Grendstad & Falck, Vanja (2025). From Product to Market Co-Creation: methodological guidelines. INNOAQUA Project. Full text in Research Archive

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