Cognitive Capacity and Ideological Group Formation M. Afzal Upal Rashid Erfani Intelligent Agents & Multiagent Systems Lab University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, 43606 afzal@eecs.utoledo.edu Abstract This paper reports on a multiagent model of the emergence of social groups inspired by charismatic individuals such as new religious movement leaders. The Agent-based Information Entrepreneur Model (AIM) is based on the recently proposed cognitive theory of new religious movements and has been used to study various aspects of the emergence, maintenance, and growth of ideological organizations. The paper explores the role that differences in the cognitive capacities among various agents play by allowing agents to model other actors in their environment at different levels. The results show that higher cognitive capacity is an advantage but not a deciding factor. Contact: M. Afzal Upal EECS Dept, MS 308 University of Toledo Toledo, OH, 43606 Tel: 1-419-530-8145 Fax: 1-419-530-8146 Email: afzal@eecs.utoledo.edu Key Words: social simulation, dynamic social networks, group formation