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Alicorn comments on Building rationalist communities: lessons from the Latter-day Saints - Less Wrong
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I have to wonder if this is really optimal. I've often heard people poke fun at LDS missionaries for exactly this image. Possibly it exudes respectability on a level that people who aren't receptive don't want to acknowledge, but has the church ever experimented with this?
It's hard to compare the relative growth rates of religions because so many do not keep good statistics, and besides which, many databases do not keep statistics for the LDS church separate from those of mainstream Christianity, but the Baha'i faith seems to have had comparable if slightly lesser growth, and far more international success.
Many religions throughout history have achieved explosive growth rates, but none so far as I know have done significant experimentation to optimize their methodology, and a lot of religious conversion tactics rely on what we consider here to be Dark Arts, which are not nearly as conducive to encouraging people to become rationalists.
I'm pretty sure people would make fun of any consistent look adopted by Mormon missionaries.
Yup, even a business shirt and tie. But I think the point is that it's the consistency which creates the vulnerability. Suppose we took the look of anyone in our organization, including say Lukeprog, and duplicated it on all the members...
Yet Mormon missionaries act on the official behalf of an organization that cares very much about being perceived as beneficent and wholesome; if they didn't have a dress code someone in their employ would offend someone and there would be kerfluffle about it. Albeit perhaps this portion of the purpose could be served by a less narrow dress code.
Eliezer uses the word 'vulnerability'. I think this is close to what they are trying to signal, which is 'harmless'. It is a good strategy to have a very disciplined dress code, and build a brand as having a 'dorky', squeaky-clean manner, so that people feel comfortable allowing the missionaries in their home. In my home town anyway, they went door to door and I had no qualms about inviting them in, knowing that any odd behavior would be newsworthy, and quickly become widely known, exactly because the branding is so strong.
I'm not sure that we should adopt any kind of dress code at all, other than not offending the fashion sense of others inadvertently. Perhaps something small, like a sigil that people could wear as jewelry would be sufficient?
Branding ourselves should only be done after we become an effective group, and one that is admired. We want to be known as 'those sensible people that get things done', not 'that group of nerds that talks way too much about how my thinking sucks'. Eventually we'd like everyone to aspire to rationality, not just the people that test over some arbitrary IQ score.
Edit - please disregard this post
It does probably help make them Those Silly Outgroup People, yes.