I remember reading a kind of similar thing about religious rituals and rules in a game theory book. In many religions the church provides a lot of social support and benefits to members and they want those benefits go to people who actually believe in their religion.

The book included a cartoon showing a man eating a hamburger at a church picnic, with a thought balloon that said something like "I can pretend to love Jesus for a free hamburger!".

Requirements like tedious rituals you must regularly attend or various intrusive rules you must follow your personal life impose a significant cost on joining the church. The guy who will pretend to love Jesus for a free hamburger might think twice if the deal is that he has to forgo sex until marriage for free hamburgers.

The idea then is that the rituals and rules impose a high enough cost that it isn't worth it just for the benefits and support the church provides. Only people who actually believe--the kind of people that would join even if they weren't getting a social network and physical benefits from it--will put up with the rituals and rules.