Cost commitment, not religion per se, drives group survival advantage

Evidence

Religion was not a predictor of commune longevity once the number of costly requirements was statistically controlled, suggesting that the survival advantage of religious communes was due to the greater cost commitment of their members. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 351

Categorization

• XREF: Directly contradicts religious-content explanations: the causal variable is costly signaling, matching Baumard’s religious-signaling model the reader is testing against Silence.
• DEEPTHINKING: This is a clean natural experiment showing religiosity as epiphenomenal to publicly costly commitment — the strongest version of the partner-choice claim the reader is integrating.