Constantino, S., Schlüter, M., Weber, E., Wijermans, N.. 2021. Cognition and behavior in context: a framework and theories to explain natural resource use decisions in social-ecological systems. Sustainability Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00989-w

The complex, context-dependent, and dynamic nature of human behavior is increasingly recognized as both an important cause of sustainability problems and potential leverage for their solution. Human beings are diverse, as are the social, ecological, and institutional settings in which they are embedded. Despite this recognition and extensive knowledge about human decision-making in the behavioral sciences, empirical analysis,...

Wijermans, N., Verhagen, H., Lytter, A.. 2021. An Online Implementation of a Virtual Agent-Based Experiment Tool—An Exploration. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61503-1_29

Social simulation targets social science problems and challenges, of theoretical, empirical and applied nature, using simulation. This implies contributing to the development of theory/explanations of social phenomena or using existing theories and models to understand or predict outcomes of social processes. The different uses of social simulation and the different roles it can play in the research process make it the Swiss a...

Scholz, G., Eberhard, T., Ostrowski, R., Wijermans, N.. 2021. Social Identity in Agent-Based Models — Exploring the State of the Art. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61503-1_6

A key challenge in social simulation is how to represent human behavior, specifically in its social context. The Social Identity approach (SIA) reflects a promising potential as it describes how people behave while being part of a group, how groups interact and how these interactions and ‘appropriate group behaviors’ can change over time. SIA is used in a variety of fields and increasingly implemented in agent-based models. A...

Verhagen, H., Borit, M., Bravo, G. and Wijermans, N., 2020. Advances in Social Simulation.

Since the first larger scale conferences in the early 1990s, social simulation has rapidly evolved into becoming a methodology known by researchers and practitioners in different areas including sociology, political science, economics, history, and ecology, to name a few. Each of these disciplines has to address what sociologists call the micro-macro link – how individual decision-making entities interact to produce effects at...