Henrich constructs a formal model, which indicates that without CREDs, costly practices, including rituals, are not stable and are unlikely to survive, and that vigilance about CREDs can result in stable costly practices. CGS abets rituals that engage humans’ contextual biases; those, for example, in which prestigious exemplars publically affirm beliefs (exploiting prestige bias) or undertake practices (scarification, snake handling, etc.) that only committed followers would affirm or undertake (exhibiting CREDs). CREDs are well‐wrought to sustain religions’ otherwise less plausible counterintuitive beliefs. They help, first, to solve the problem of commitment to such beliefs, which, in turn, helps to solidify the group’s cooperative arrangements. They also help to explain why participants do not find competing gods tempting.