Another dynamic of conversion may help solve the puzzle. In welcoming converts, born believers naturally assume that the newcomers need guidance. “You will be a baby Muslim,” one missionary told me when seeking my conversion, “and we will help you learn to walk.” But newcomers can be intelligent and in many cases quite headstrong, and this condescension can be grating, particularly if the convert has devoted himself to the diligent study of his new religion and has outdone most native believers in religious knowledge. For extremely disagreeable converts, especially those who have gained real understanding of the religion, condescension may sound like a challenge—and some may react by overcompensating and adopting extreme forms of the religion. This happens all the time: the Catholic convert who insists on a Tridentine mass; the Buddhist convert who learns ancient languages and dreams of taking saffron robes. Religious knowledge is not one of the variables that the researchers measured when assessing religiousness. And although the researchers found that converts are less religious, many are still religious. The characteristics of that subset may be what matters in understanding jihadist converts.