There was a psychological study a few years ago that showed that if people pretended as if they believed a certain thing when they really didn’t, they often ended up really believing it.
I’ve seen it happen in LARPing groups sometimes. A shy, insecure young woman, fresh out of an abusive relationship, joined a LARP where she pretended to be a strong, confident elven warrior every other Saturday. After 2 months that confidence crept into her everyday life, and suddenly she was nobody’s punching bag anymore.
Maybe the same thing happens with forced conversions? Sort of a variation on Stockholm Syndrome?
” A shy, insecure young woman, fresh out of an abusive relationship, joined a LARP where she pretended to be a strong, confident elven warrior every other Saturday. After 2 months that confidence crept into her everyday life, and suddenly she was nobody’s punching bag anymore.”
I think that’s a little different. They showed her that she “could” be, and she wanted it.