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From Individuals to Large-Scale Change: A Hands-On Intro to Agent-Based Modelling

Semester

Semester 2, 2025-2026

Type of course

Methodological and Practical Courses

Date

April 1, 2026

Location

University of Groningen

Duration

1 day

Maximum number of participants

12

ECTS

0.5 EC will be appointed for participation in the complete course

Staff

Fernanda Reintgen Kamphuisen (RUG)

Content 

Have you ever wondered how individual perceptions and behaviour scale up to produce collective patterns that no single person intended? Or how small groups of motivated individuals can spark positive change and inspire collective action? This workshop focuses on how such individual level processes can create large-scale patterns in groups, organisations, or societies using Agent-Based Modelling (ABM). ABM is a computational tool used to simulate how agents (i.e., individuals) act and interact over time in order to understand how large-scale outcomes emerge. 

Working hands-on with simple models, we will get to know the simulation technique and explore how small changes in cognitive or motivational assumptions can lead to very different outcomes. Throughout the day, you will work with your own theory and learn how to turn key constructs and mechanisms into a precise, dynamic system by defining agents, their decision rules, the environments they operate in, as well as the feedback loops that shape behaviour over time. 

By making theoretical assumptions explicit and testable, ABM helps clarify causal pathways, exposes gaps or ambiguities, and reveals boundary conditions that traditional methods often overlook. The workshop provides an accessible introduction to ABM and to the ways it can benefit your thinking and research.

Time schedule

10.30 - 11.00 Walk in with coffee 

11.00 - 11.30 Introduction

  • Brief presentations of participant’s theories

11.30 - 13:00 FUN-damentals of ABM - input session with hands-on examples 

  • What is ABM?
  • Why and when to use it?
  • What is needed from psychological theorising

13.00 - 14.00 Lunch and small group discussions 

  • Introducing feedback loops to your theory
  • Test your theories specificity

14.00 - 14.30 Plenary check-in 

  • Brief presentations on how theories changed
  • Sharing insights, outcomes, reflections, questions

14.30 - 15.00 Doing science with ABM - input session

  • Purpose of a model
  • Challenges and a way to deal with them

15.00 - 16.00 Map your theory to ABM - input session 

  • Checklist
  • Example

16.00 Optional drinks and dinner

Learning goals 

  1. Understand what ABM is and when it is useful in psychology.
  2. Be able to map a psychological theory to an ABM: define agents, states, interactions, environment, and feedback loops.
  3. Confidently run and modify basic NetLogo models, change parameters and observe emergence.
  4. Be able to design a minimal ABM for their own research question and plan a small experiment.
  5. Know next steps beyond this workshop, where to get help and sample literature.

Preparation

  • Bring a short summary of a theory you are working with (aim, key constructs, proposed mechanisms)
  • Bring a A4 page page that illustrates your theory using boxes-and-arrows that you can quickly present
  • Install Netlogo 6.4.0: https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/6.4.0/  
  • Read the indicated literature

Literature

Examine this paper in detail 

Eberlen, J., et al (2017). Simulate this! An Introduction to Agent-Based Models and their Power to Improve your Research Practice. International Review of Social Psychology, 30(1), 149–160, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/irsp.115

Skim these papers: 

Kamphuisen, F. M. R., Joye, Y., & Bolderdijk, J. W. (2025). An Agent-Based Model of the Extinction of Experience: How Nature Availability and Connectedness to Nature Co-Evolve Over Time. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 102629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2025.102629  

Smith, E. R., & Conrey, F. R. (2007). Agent-Based Modeling: A New Approach for Theory Building in Social Psychology. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(1), 87-104. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868306294789  

Robinaugh, D. J., Haslbeck, J. M. B., Ryan, O., Fried, E. I., & Waldorp, L. J. (2021). Invisible Hands and Fine Calipers: A Call to Use Formal Theory as a Toolkit for Theory Construction. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(4), 725-743. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620974697 (Original work published 2021)

 

If there are more PhDs interested in participating than available places, distribution will be based on seniority for this course. This means that we look at how long someone is a KLI member.