Cooperation and Commune Longevity: A Test of the Costly Signaling Theory of Religion

“81 Rappaport’s 31 observation that religious ritual requires performance ensures that participants directly experience the somatic affects induced by the elements of ritual.”

“In their study of utopian communities, Sosis and Bressler (2003) assembled data on longevity, group size and costly requirements (e.g., rituals, taboos, etc.) for 83 religious and secular utopia movements in the 19th century.”

“Individuals who demonstrate commitment to ingroup values through ritual participation are more likely to be trusted in cooperative endeavors [95].”

“It seems the initial lack of any communal Ladino religion or corporate structures, combined with the uncertainty created by immigration into a novel environment,840 made Ladinos open to learning from Itza’ (Sosis and Bressler 2003).”

“Consistent with the multilevel account above, both ethnographic and historical studies reveal how intergroup competition has driven the diffusion of effective rituals and devotions (McNeill 1995, Sosis & Bressler 2003).”

“These results suggest that costly displays of group commitment (though apparently wasteful) may be conserved because they intensify prosocial behaviors and attitudes among the wider community (Henrich, 2009; Sosis & Bressler, 2003).”

“Empirical tests have supported Irons’s verbal arguments (Sosis 2000; Sosis and Bressler 2003; Sosis and Ruffle 2003), although a formal model of the theory of ritual has yet to be developed.”

“Sociologists have discussed communes (Bader, Mencken, and Parker 2006; Sosis and Bressler 2003).”

“…behavior over the past decade (e.g., Bliege Bird and Smith, 2005; Bliege Bird et al., 2001; Boone, 1998, 2000; Boone and Kressler, 1999; Hawkes, 2000; Hawkes and Bliege Bird, 2002; Neiman, 1997; Smith and Bliege Bird, 2000, 2005; Smith et al., 2003; Sosis, 2000, 2003; Sosis and Bressler, 2003).”

“Costly signaling theory has received empirical support from the research of Sosis and colleagues (Sosis 2000; Sosis and Bressler 2003; Sosis and Ruffle 2003, 2004), whose work has demonstrated a significant and positive association between participation in religious ritual and enhanced cooperation.”

“Throughout history, there are numerous examples of religious or secular rituals that involve considerable pain and effort (Glucklich, 2001; Smith, 2003), and historical evidence shows that religious groups that have costly rituals are more successful (Sosis & Bressler, 2003).”

“Recent work by Richard Sosis and others, however, has provided evidence that cooperation is significantly higher among those who are more devout (Sosis 2000; Sosis and Bressler 2003; Sosis and Ruffle 2003; Wilson 2002).”

“For example, Richard Sosis has shown that, among a large sample of 19th century communes, religious groups with more costly rituals out-survived secular groups and religious groups with fewer rituals (Sosis and Bressler 2003).”

“To evaluate these arguments, Sosis and colleagues (Ruffle and Sosis submitted, Sosis 2000a; Sosis and Bressler 2003; Sosis and Ruffle 2003, 2004) examined the role of ritual behavior in overcoming the inherent collective action problems of cooperative labor that communal societies confront.”

“, hazing, painful initiation rites), both as a mechanism of bonding and perhaps as a form of costly signalling to demonstrate group commitment (Irons, 1996; Sosis & Alcorta, 2003; Sosis and Bressler, 2003; Sosis et al., 2007).”

“Yet researchers have used signalling theories to develop hypotheses about the proximate perceptual, motor and learning systems that enable and conserve honest religious-signalling systems (Bulbulia 2004a; Sosis 2003).”

“For example, the longevity of religious communes is related to the amount of costly rituals in which group members are required to engage (Sosis & Bressler, 2003).”

“Eating the wrong food or affiliating with the wrong people may indicate the threat of moral heterogeneity (Atran & Henrich , 2010; Sosis & Bressler, 2003).”

“…predictors, studies found that males in religious Kibbutzim are more likely to cooperate in economic games than males from secular Kibbutzim, with the highest rates of cooperation among those males who most regularly engage in collective rituals (Ruffle & Sosis, 2007; Sosis & Bressler, 2003).”

“Interestingly a similar effect did not hold for secular communes, where costly requirements did not correlate with secular commune lifespan (Sosis and Bressler 2003).”

“For instance, Sosis & Bressler (2003) employed a team of undergraduate research assistants to scour secondary sources concerning 83 nineteenth-century American communes answering a survey to categorize and structure each commune’s rituals and taboos, behavioral restrictions, and…”

“Signaling via providing collective goods has also been reported or hypothesized for several noneconomic arenas, particularly various forms of religious ritual (Boone, 1998, 2000; Irons, 2001; Sosis, 2003; Sosis & Alcorta, 2003; Sosis & Bressler, 2003; Sosis, Kress & Boster, 2007; Wilson, 2008 ).”

“In subsequent work, Sosis and Bressler (2003) use historical documents and monographs to construct a database on the requirements and constraints that these communes imposed on their members.”

“…considerable historical, ethnographic, and experimental evidence that religion does this quite well (Sosis, 2000, 2005; Sosis and Bressler, 2003; Sosis and Ruffl e, 2003, 2004; Johnson, 2005; Wilson, 2005; Ruffl e and Sosis, 2007; Shariff and Norenzayan, 2007; Sosis et al., 2007; Bulbulia and…”

“Behavioral and cross-cultural studies also suggest that participation in religious rituals reliably conveys commitment to the group and contributes to overcoming problems inherent to human cooperation (Soler, 2012; Sosis & Bressler, 2003; Sosis & Ruffle, 2003, 2004; Sosis, Kress, & Boster, 2007).”

“In a further quantitative analysis of eighty-three of these religious and secular communes (Sosis and Bressler 2003) for which more detailed records are available, it was found that religious communes imposed more than twice as many costly requirements (including food taboos and fasts, constraints…”

“cited above (Sosis, 200; Sosis and Bressler, 2003; Sosis and Ruffle, 2003), empirical studies are scarce.”

“Increases in the level of sacrifice, imposed on members, enhance commitment in religious groups, whereas costly signaling seems to have no effect on secular commune longevity [ 20 ].”

“There is an ever-growing literature on the signaling value of religious behaviors (Alcorta & Sosis 2005; Bulbulia 2004; 2009; Henrich 2009; Sosis 2005; Sosis & Alcorta 2003; Sosis & Bressler 2003).”

“…currently under consideration in this burgeoning field, including but not limited to ritual (Atkinson & Whitehouse, 2011; Soler, 2012; Sosis, 2005; Sosis & Bressler, 2003; Sosis, Kress, & Boster, 2007; Sosis & Ruffle, 2003), behavioral and mental synchrony (Cohen, Mundry, & Kirschner, 2014), fear…”

“…(c) facilitating cooperation with their coalition (e.g. rituals signal group commitment and increase group cooperation) (Ruffle & Sosis, 2007; Sosis & Bressler, 2003; Sosis & Ruffle, 2003), and (d) increasing group cohesion (e.g., rituals serve as mechanisms for social cohesion and foster…”

“…because of this, religion evolved to overcome challenges of coordination and free-rider problems inherent in cooperation (Alcorta & Sosis, 2005; Bulbulia, 2004, 2009; Henrich, 2009; Irons 2001; Soler, 2008; Sosis, 2005; Sosis & Alcorta, 2003; Sosis & Bressler, 2003; Sosis, Kress & Boster, 2007).”

“Sixth, some empirical evidence suggests that religious beliefs are more effective at suppressing selfish behavior and promoting cooperation than equivalent nonreligious beliefs (e.g., Sosis & Bressler, 2003).”

“Most people are wanton agent-detectors and religious concepts hinge on this ability (Guthrie 1980, 1995). Barrett (2012) argues that we have a “hypersensitive agency detection device” (HADD), a cognitive mechanism designed to attribute mental states.”

“Some evidence suggests that religious concepts sustain ritual practices over longer periods of time (Sosis & Bressler, 2003).”

“One of the common arguments is that extreme rituals have survived because groups with rituals that are more effective in bonding the in-group are more likely to survive compared to groups that are lacking such rituals (e.g., Sosis and Bressler, 2003; Henrich, 2009; see also Wilson et al., 2008).”

“Religious rituals can also serve as “costly-tofake” signs of social commitment (Irons, 1996, 2001; Sosis, 2000; Sosis & Bressler, 2003; Sosis & Ruffle, 2003).”

“…behavior network the individuals into distinct communities, usually offering and rewarding competitively successful descendant leaving strategies, communal child-care and education and other cooperative gains (cp. Wilson 2002; Sosis and Bressler 2003; Newman and Hugo 2006; Berman et al. 2007).”

“Sosis (Sosis 2000; Sosis & Bressler 2003) has already provided evidence of this in his comparisons of the longevity of religious versus secular communes.”

“Sosis and Bressler ( 2003 ) found that religious communes had greater longevity than secular communes.”

“While relatively few scholars informed by these perspectives have yet to tackle the explanation of religious behavior, those that do tend to focus on the ways in which religious identity promotes a baseline reputation that influences interpersonal interactions (e.g., Alcorta and Sosis, 2005; Cronk, 1994; Henrich, 2009…”

“…and thus deters free-riders (Fischer & Xygalatas, 2014; Henrich, 2009; Irons, 2001; Knight et al., 1995; Power et al., 2013; Purzycki & Arakchaa, 2013; Rossano, 2015, 2016; Ruffle & Sosis, 2007; Soler, 2012; Sosis, 2019; Sosis & Alcorta, 2003; Sosis & Bressler, 2003; Whitehouse & Lanman, 2014).”

“Moreover, levels of religious commitment appear to increase in response to coalitional threats (Bellah 1967; Chen 2010; Lanman 2009; Sosis and Bressler 2003).”

“communes (Sosis 2000; Sosis and Bressler 2003).”

“…& Heath, 2009), commitment to group values (Ensminger, 1997; Henrich, 2009; Irons, 2001; Ruffle & Sosis, 2007; Sosis & Ruffle, 2003), and transmission of normative and cultural information (Atran & Henrich, 2010; Chudek & Henrich, 2011; Rossano, 2012; Schjoedt et al., 2013; Sosis & Bressler, 2003).”

“This makes the task of establishing the commensurability of costs across different forms of capital yet more challenging.(54,80) How are we to establish the “exchange value” of costs that bridge different forms of 96 BARKER ET AL.”

“31 See Bering, 2002a, 2003, 2004, 2006; Bering et al., 2005; Johnson and Bering, 2006; Sosis, 2000, 2003; Sosis and Alcorta, 2003; Sosis and Bressler, 2003; Sosis et al., 2007.”

“Finally, there is good evidence that religious beliefs are more effective than secular beliefs in promoting cooperation (Rappaport 1999; Sosis 2005; Sosis and Bressler 2003 ).”

“This effect is enhanced when members send to each other costly signals of commitment to their shared religion (Irons, 2001; Sosis and Bressler, 2003; Sosis and Ruffle, 2003).”

“People also tend to adapt their own giving behaviors to the group norm [32,33].”

“%) of runs, significantly higher group cost was not required to achieve stability of the ingroup population; this fits the conclusions of other studies that some low-cost groups do seem to endure (Sosis and Bressler 2003; Sosis, Kress, and Boster 2007).”