Moral commitment to sacred values leverages movements lacking material means against stronger opposition.

Evidence

If people perceive that a sacred rule was violated, they may feel morally obliged to retaliate against the wrongdoers even if the retaliation does more harm than good. But such moral commitment to sacred values ultimately can be the key to the success or failure of insurgent or revolutionary movements with far fewer material means than the armies or police arrayed against them. Ever since the nineteenth-century anarchists, science education in engineering and medical studies has been a frequent criterion of leadership for these movements because such studies demonstrate hands-on capability and potential for personal and costly sacrifice through longterm commitment to a course of study that requires delayed gratification. Al-Qaeda, like other revolutionary groups, was initially formed and led by fairly well-off and well-educated individuals, the majority of whom studied engineering and medicine (Bergen and Lind 2007; Gambetta and Hertog 2007). — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor, 46

Categorization

• XREF: Directly bears on the reader’s question about whether professed conviction is manufactured: here leadership selection filters for demonstrated costly sacrifice and delayed gratification — a structural rather than rhetorical mechanism. — connects to: Sacred values resist tradeoffs because communities set them apart as nonfungible moral imperatives. — Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges, Sacred Values and Cultural Conflict, 4; Sacred-value commitment produces costly sacrifice that lets weak groups beat stronger foes. — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor: Unconditional…, 1; Sacred-values-driven violence is insensitive to cost-benefit scope. — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor: Unconditional…, 31 (+5 more)
• QUESTION: Engineering/medicine as a leadership criterion for revolutionary groups contradicts the stereotype of the excluded, marginal radical — suggests sacrifice-capacity screening, worth chasing.

Related

• Sacred values resist material incentives and are best countered only by rival sacred values. (similarity 0.88)
• Sacred-value commitment produces costly sacrifice that lets weak groups beat stronger foes. (similarity 0.85)
• Sacred values resist cost-benefit correction unlike ordinary preferences (similarity 0.83)
• Sacred values resist tradeoffs because communities set them apart as nonfungible moral imperatives. (similarity 0.82)
• Sacred-value defenders benefit materially yet must deny those benefits to stay non-negotiable (similarity 0.82)
• Sacred values are processed as unconditional rules, not cost-benefit calculations. (similarity 0.82)
• Defending sacred values defies material cost-benefit prediction across decision contexts. (similarity 0.81)
• Material incentives for relinquishing sacred values backfire and harden resistance (similarity 0.80)
• Sacred-values-driven violence is insensitive to cost-benefit scope. (similarity 0.80)
• Sacralized values resist material incentives and cause offer-driven concessions to backfire (similarity 0.80)
• Offering material incentives for sacred-value compromises backfires and increases hostility (similarity 0.79)
• Devoted lower-power groups can beat materially stronger paid foes. (similarity 0.79)
• Sacred values bind group identity and give groups advantage through non-rational commitment. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Sacred values resist material incentives and are best countered only by rival sacred values. #corroborates (0.85) — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor, 82
• Material incentives backfire on sacred values while symbolic recognition softens opposition. #corroborates (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 547
• Sacred values resist trade-offs and override rational self-interest in decision making. #expands (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 545
• Genuine moral commitments resist monetary incentives to switch #corroborates (0.75) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 303
• Sacred values bind group identity and give groups advantage through non-rational commitment. #expands (0.75) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 264