Unconditional acceptance from outsiders drives defection from restrictive religious groups.

Evidence

Lisa L. also comes from a religious family, but a much more restrictive one: She grew up with Jehovah’s Witnesses. … “I had noticed time and time again that actually other people are happy, too.” Meanwhile, doubts grew silently, especially because of positions taken by Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves, for example, about homosexuality: “I didn’t even have to say anything about it because they just presented it as fact, only I didn’t take it as fact.” … Important for her later detachment was the contact with outsiders, especially at school. There she not only had the opportunity to build friendships, but also to learn about and question new worldviews – a competence that was not welcome in Lisa’s congregation. … The decisive factor here was “that they accepted me as I am and not as I should be. I never had that feeling with Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Her transformation process eventually lasted into young adulthood. Critical discussions about beliefs did not play a decisive role. Rather, what mattered was that outsiders were models for openness, tolerance, education, and personal happiness to her. — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 207

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to social capital literature on how cohesive communities penalize defection, and how bridging ties to outsiders enable exit. — connects to: The need to belong sometimes shows null or inverse effects on extremism. — Lea Echelmeyer, Anne-Marie Slotboom, and Frank Weerman, The Putative Effect of Identity on…, 237