Pilgrimages are ubiquitous across all major world religions. Hundreds of millions of people travel to various sites across the globe to engage in rituals and connect with their faith. 

But how do pilgrimages get established? How do people become convinced to try something new? What makes a pilgrimage so special that it persists over generations, drawing people to it repeatedly? 

Using a theoretical game model, University of California, Davis, anthropologists suggest that lucky outcomes — such as a lone miner discovering gold after a pilgrimage — can sometimes give rise to the perception that a new site cures, blesses, grants miracles or otherwise produces great outcomes in pilgrims’ lives. 

For the first time, researchers have created an annual global dashboard that tracks 21st century trends in social shortfall and ecological overshoot, and reveals the extent to which wealthy countries drive most of the overshoot while poorer countries bear the brunt of deprivation.