Costly religious requirements statistically explain why religious communes outlasted secular ones fourfold

Evidence

At least one investigation, discussed earlier, directly tested the prediction that religious groups that incorporate extravagant displays of faith would enjoy an advantage in longevity over groups that do not. Returning to this study of the group longevity of religious and secular communes in nineteenth-century America, Richard Sosis looked at an ideal case study because these communes operated under difficult conditions, facing various internal and external threats to group stability. Communes that were unable to solve “collective action problems”—overcoming internal disputes, preventing members from defecting to rival groups, surviving droughts, and so on, could not prosper. Indeed, some communes were dissolved soon after they were founded, whereas others flourished. For every year considered in a 110-year span, religious communes were found to outlast secular ones by an average factor of four. Not surprisingly, religious communes imposed more than twice as many costly requirements such as food taboos and fasts, than secular ones. Importantly, the number of costly requirements predicted religious commune longevity after accounting for population size, income, and year the commune was founded. Last, the survival advantage of religious communes was statistically explained by the greater costs imposed on their members. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 486

Returning to this study of the group longevity of religious and secular communes in nineteenth-century America, Richard Sosis looked at an ideal case study because these communes operated under difficult conditions, facing various internal and external threats to group stability. Communes that were unable to solve “collective action problems”—overcoming internal disputes, preventing members from defecting to rival groups, surviving droughts, and so on, could not prosper. Indeed, some communes were dissolved soon after they were founded, whereas others flourished. For every year considered in a 110-year span, religious communes were found to outlast secular ones by an average factor of four. Not surprisingly, religious communes imposed more than twice as many costly requirements such as food taboos and fasts, than secular ones. Importantly, the number of costly requirements predicted religious commune longevity after accounting for population size, income, and year the commune was founded. Last, the survival advantage of religious communes was statistically explained by the greater costs imposed on their members. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 486

Categorization

• XREF: Directly integrates with the reader’s core argument: costly displays (like fumi-e) and commitment devices map onto Baumard’s partner-choice logic and the functional survival advantage of high-cost religious groups. This is the mechanism-level evidence for why public rituals of commitment (even coercive apostasy tests) strengthen group durability.
• ADDENDUM: The collective-action framing and cost-based group survival directly parallels the author’s analysis in ‘On Sacrifice’ of how high-cost displays stabilize stratified religious communities.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 486