Strong community ties inherently enable exclusion and intergroup violence.

Evidence

Turning to the second path, those very social ties that religious practices and rituals help cement, strengthen communities but at the same time could also widen the divide between who is “in” and who is “out.” There is a common belief that social ties are inherently good, and indeed there is a great deal of evidence showing that people with strong community ties are healthier, happier, and more prosocial. However, few talk about the ugly face of strong social ties. The same processes that build community also open the door for exclusion to those who are seen as not belonging, and often, violent opposition to those who are seen as threatening. This could be called the social solidarity hypothesis of intergroup violence. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 528

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• XREF: Resonates with the reader’s Silence reading: Japanese authorities consolidate in-group solidarity precisely by staging a public apostasy ritual that excludes the priest-outsider.

Related

• Strong social ties also enable exclusion and violence toward outsiders (similarity 0.88)
• Championing community inadvertently strengthens exclusionary bonding over inclusive bridging ties (similarity 0.82)
• Belief content may not cause intergroup violence; solidarity may instead. (similarity 0.80)
• Prosocial religions outcompeted rivals through group solidarity advantages in warfare (similarity 0.80)
• Religious groups outsourced monitoring to gods and outcompeted rivals (similarity 0.80)
• Prosocial religions outcompeted rival groups historically and scaled up human social organization (similarity 0.79)
• Chronic, communal, in-group religious practice drives the prosociality effect (similarity 0.79)
• Religion drives intergroup conflict through three mutable pathways, not belief alone (similarity 0.78)