Variations in strictness and religious commitment within and among five denominations

lannaccone (1994) claims that members of churches with strict rules (e.g., no smoking or drinking) have higher average commitment because strict rules discourage involvement by less committed potential members. Most previous studies of Iannaccone's assertions have studied congregations within a sing le denomination, and these studies have found little support for his claims . However, Iannaccone (1996) has responded that strictness is primarily a c haracteristic of denominations that varies little within a single denominat ion. If true, multidenominational studies are needed to detect the potentia l effects of strictness. Using data from a five-denomination, 625-congregat ion study, we find that within each denomination, strictness is not signifi cantly related to measures of commitment. However, we also find, as Iannacc one claims, that most of the variation in strictness occurs between, rather than within, denominations. Thus, when we examine data from all five denom inations,we find that strictness is strongly correlated with several import ant measures of member commitment levels.