People believe that if something comes at a low cost, it probably has little value, while if things are more difficult to possess, they are automatically of better quality and more valuable. This is where the expression, you get what you pay for , comes from. In other words, people judge things based on what they must give up, rather than what they could earn. This is definitely not just for the pure fun of having them. In fact, if you look deeper into the root of initiations, you will see that they serve a very important function.
Initiations are sometimes raw, cruel, grotesque and demeaning.
The purpose is to make it hard to obtain membership into the group. Once the new candidate becomes a member, he will appreciate his membership with greater loyalty. After all, he did have to pay a big price to become a member by going through the initiation process. In the end, he will reason that if he spent a lot of effort in order to become a member, it must be because the group has high value and is well worth the trouble. The same principle applies to the dating game.