Terrorist groups and cults both strictly regulate members’ sexual relations

Evidence

A similarity between terrorist organizations and religious cults underscores the group’s dominance over individual members and the collective drive toward totalistic control. Both types of groups strictly regulate the sexual relations of their members. In some groups sexual contact with outsiders is banned. In others, such as the Weather Underground, monogamy is discouraged. Some exceedingly puritanical groups, such as the People’s Will, encourage celibacy and asexual comradeship. It is impossible to know the meaning of these restrictions, beyond their implication of total control by the group. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4140

Categorization

• CANDY: Weather Underground discouraging monogamy and People’s Will encouraging celibacy is a compact, surprising juxtaposition.
• QUESTION: Why would sexually restrictive and sexually permissive organized groups both enforce their norms? The author offers no settled answer.