Cognitive science
He has contributed to research areas of Cognition &amp; Culture and Cognitive science of religion through the development of the Context-based model of minimal counterintuiveness. In a 2005 article in the "Journal of Cognition and Culture", he proposed a cognitive science of new religious movements. Upal has also pioneered a knowledge-rich agent-based social simulation technique for simulating the development of complex cultural beliefs. In 2017 his book "Moderate Fundamentalists: Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at in the lens of cognitive science of religion", was published by DeGruyter Press. The book uses Context-based model of minimal counterintuiveness to explain counterintuitive claims of new religious movement founders such as Mirza Ghulam Ahmad-the founder of Ahmadiyya Islam. He co-edited the Brill Handbook of Islamic Sects &amp; Movements with Professor Carole M. Cusack.