Agents for Social Simulation

Agent systems are used as tools for simulating social situations.
The Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation consists of only this type of research.
Also, NetLogo is a product of this need.
This simulations can have several benefits:
Allows one to observe phenomena that might be derived via analysis, but haven't.
Can observe alternatives to a phenomena observed in nature.
Properties that are difficult to observe in nature can now be seen.
Sociality can be modeled explicitly. Agents can be built to cooperate or not.