Scholars in the field seek to explain the origin and evolution of new religious movements in terms of ordinary universal cognitive processes.
[1] Upal developed an information entrepreneurship model-based social simulation to study the origin and evolution of new religious movements.
[7] In 2013, building on Whitehouse's work, Olav Hammer studied the transmission of new age religious ideas in the West and identifies the contexts that allow them to flourish.
[2] In a 2009 article, Justin Lane applied Todd Tremlin’s account of an "Agency Detection Device" mental mechanism to the study of small and innovating religious groups.
"[16] Alistair Lockhart (2020) carried out the first extensive overview of the field of cognitive science of new religious movements, concluding that the study of cognitive science of religion as applied to new religious movements and quasi-religions shows more common themes than is typically assumed.