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In the wake of three deadly terrorist attacks in as many months in the UK, scientists have upped the ante in the war against terror.

A team from Boston University created a computer-simulated human mind which has the ability to see how the impacts of terror on behaviour pan out.

The results found there is an increase of religious ritual behaviour after terror-inspiring events which drove people beyond a threshold of fear.

When the results are placed under further scrutiny, they could help to explain why people commit atrocities in the name of God.

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Wesley Wildman, a School of Theology professor of philosophy, theology, and ethics at Boston University and who was head of the research team which developed the simulation, said: This is a potential explanatory tool for understanding why people get radicalised, why religious violence is increasing, why were seeing culture wars about religion in our political discourse.

He added: Youve got a big, complicated system in the real world; you try and approach it from the top, from sociology, you can only get so far.

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You approach it from the bottom, from psychology and neuroscience; you can only get so far.How do you get to the actual system dynamics?

The thing to do is to simulate the complicated social system in a computer so that you can slowly study it.

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The computer was developed by Connor Woods, a postdoctoral fellow in religion studies, who was hoping to gain an insight into the ways in which religion affects human behaviour.

The research was given a $2.4 million grant as they hope to figure outthe process of integration and refugee flow and the risks of religious extremist violence, according to Prof Wildman.

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ISIS to be wiped out by Artificial Intelligence? Major probe into causes of radicalisation - Express.co.uk