Church and Political Polarization

An Agent-Based Modeling Approach

Vision Statement

We aim to assist church leaders in conceptualizing and visualizing polarization within church communities by simulating key social processes—such as beliefs, social influence, and sense of belonging—that would otherwise be invisible.

We represent each person as an individual entity to analyze how beliefs, belonging, and behavior interact, providing insight that fosters understanding and reflection on community cohesion and fragmentation.

An Agent-Based Model is especially suited for this problem because polarization emerges from many local interactions, which cannot be captured through aggregate or static analysis.

Our Team

Katelin Jandris

Katelin Jandris

Katelin is from the Chicagoland area in Illinois. She majored in Computer Science at Calvin.

Ryan Klein

Ryan Klein

Ryan came to Calvin from Oregon, double majoring in Data Science and Political Science.

Övgü Tufan

Övgü Tufan

Övgü is from Turkey and majored in Computer Science at Calvin.

Downloadables

Contact

Links:

Calvin University - Computer Science