Religious Exit Costs

Abstract

Although much research has been conducted on religious exits, most of it focuses on the characteristics of those who have left, the factors prompting them to leave, or the issues they face in their new lives, with little systematic theorizing about the forms and roles of religious exit costs—that is, the penalties religious adherents pay or anticipate paying should they leave their respective religious groups. In this article, I aim to fill this gap by providing a clearer conceptualization for religious exit costs, discussing how they may vary in form, and generating a series of theoretical propositions concerning their role in preventing exit and the implications associated with successful preventions.