I WONDER IF THIS HAS RELEVANCE FOR IMMIGRATION POLICY? Is Hazing Part Of Humans’ Evolved Psychology? “This may have been a time during which coalitions were exploited by newcomers. Our intuitions about how to treat newcomers may reflect this regularity of the past. Abusing newcomers—hazing—may have served to temporarily alter their behavior, as well as select out uncommitted newcomers when membership was non-obligatory.”

I seem to remember seeing research to the effect that people who are mildly to moderately hazed wind up being more loyal to the group they join than people who are simply admitted. This isn’t the one I remember, but it’s to similar effect. As a side note, it’s hard to research hazing on Google without being swamped by stuff from college Student Life offices.