Communes’ costly member requirements predict group survival patterns

Evidence

In a follow-up study, Sosis and his colleagues went further. In a more fine-grained analysis of 83 of these religious and secular communes for which more detailed records are available, they explained why religious communes outlasted secular ones. They turned their attention to costs imposed by religious and secular communes on their members. Two critical questions were posed: (1) Did religious groups outlast secular ones because religious groups imposed more costly requirements than secular ones? (2) Did religious groups with more costly requirements survive longer than religious groups with fewer costly requirements? — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 347

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• QUESTION: The specific numerical payoff for the reader’s fumi-e argument lives in the design of this study — the 83-commune dataset and its 22 cost categories are the evidentiary backbone worth returning to.

Related

• Religious group survival advantages stem from costly member requirements (similarity 0.92)
• Costly requirements predict religious group longevity independent of other factors (similarity 0.90)
• Cost commitment, not religion per se, drives group survival advantage (similarity 0.88)
• Costly religious requirements statistically explain why religious communes outlasted secular ones fourfold (similarity 0.88)
• Religious communes outlived secular ones but both mostly failed (similarity 0.86)
• Costly requirements, not religion per se, drove religious communes’ survival advantage (similarity 0.79)
• Groups imposing costlier requirements attract more committed members (similarity 0.79)