Religious group survival advantages stem from costly member requirements

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

• XREF: Directly relevant to the fumi-e analysis — costly, public rituals (trampling, sacrificing) ARE what distinguishes surviving religious groups in this model. — connects to: The Middle East’s scarcity drove religious development because scarcity demands group coordination.